On the Potential of Using Selective Laser Melting for the Fast Development of Forging Alloys at the Example of Waspaloy

Abstract Forged high-performance components form the basis of technical innovations in the energy and transport sector. Great efforts are undertaken to develop new materials for forging, aiming at optimizing both the material performance and the effort needed for materials processing. The development of new forging alloys is accomplished using computational methods in combination with experimental techniques. The experimental characterization is time-consuming and requires a significant material effort. In high-alloy grades, inevitable segregations occur during casting which require substantial efforts for homogenizing the alloys by annealing and forging. In this work, gas atomization of powder and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is explored as a new means to provide small, homogeneous samples of the desired alloys at reduced processing times. In this regard, gas atomization is used to produce raw material for SLM, which is used to prepare the specimens for the analysis of forging process parameters. The Waspaloy is considered in this work. SLM and conventional specimens are compared by means of hot isostatic compression tests in a dilatometer to determine the flow stress and microstructure evolution. The work shows that thermomechanical treatment of the as-printed state allows to convert the additive manufactured (AM) microstructures into structures that are useful inferring on the forging properties of the considered alloy.