On the Hardening and Softening Behaviors of Additively Manufactured and Forged Inconel 718 Alloys Under Non-Isothermal Heat Treatments

During the heat treatment of nickel-based superalloy (for instance Inconel 718 alloy), the non-isothermal heating and cooling processes significantly influenced precipitation behaviors as well as the final mechanical properties. This study compared the precipitation behaviors and the resulting hardening and softening behaviors of additively manufactured and conventionally forged Inconel 718 alloys under non-isothermal heat treatment processes. The results indicated that additively manufactured Inconel 718 alloy accelerated aging precipitation behavior due to the fine dendritic structure during both heating and cooling processes. As a result, the additively manufactured alloy reached peak hardness of ~480 HV at ~650 °C (~100 °C earlier than the forged alloy’s peak hardness of ~460 HV at ~750 °C) during heating and gained almost constant hardness during cooling. Further, the heating rate significantly affected the precipitation behaviors of γ″ and γ′ phases in both alloys. Slower heating rates provided sufficient time for phase transformation, leading to a more pronounced precipitation., e.g., the volume fraction of precipitates in the SLM alloy increased from 1.5% at 5 °C/min to 5.9% at 0.5 °C/min when heated to 850 °C. During cooling process, the twisted grain boundaries of additively manufactured alloy facilitated the precipitation of δ-phase, which in turn inhibited the formation of γ/γ′/γ″ phase. Both alloys exhibited minimum hardness of ~380–390 HV at 1000 °C due to complete dissolution of strengthening phases. This study provides a comparative understanding of non-isothermal phase evolution in AM and forged Inconel 718, which is critical for optimizing heat treatment in aerospace applications.