Aging treatment of selective laser melted Alloy 625: mechanical strength and corrosion resistance

Additive manufacturing is nowadays increasingly adopted to produce a large variety of components, especially with complex geometries. A deep investigation and optimization of the mechanical and corrosion performance of the selective laser melted Alloy 625 is extremely useful to support designers in the transition from the conventional to the additive manufacturing technology. Even though the selective laser melting technique is still associated with too high production costs and low productivity to enable a broader expansion, it permits to obtain excellent mechanical and corrosion properties compared to those of the conventionally manufactured alloy. Despite the additively produced material shows outstanding performance already in the as-built condition, aging treatments permit further strength improvement enabling possibility of reducing thicknesses, mass, resources consumption and environmental emissions. However, the balance between the mechanical and corrosion properties is critical and it requires a careful tuning of the heat treatment parameters.