Influence of weld cooling rate on microstructure and mechanical properties of alloy 718 weldments

Even though alloy 718 is the best for welding among all nickel-base superalloys, the formation of the Laves phase in welds is a major concern. The presence of this phase drastically degrades mechanical properties of the welds. To study the influence of weld cooling rate on microstructure and mechanical properties of alloy 718 weldments, two distinct welding processes were adopted-gas tungsten arc (GTA) and electron beam (EB) welding. The EB welding resulted in finer and relatively discrete Laves phase in lower quantity due to higher cooling rates prevailing in this process. On the other hand, due to lower cooling rates, GTA weld fusion zones exhibited coarse Laves with higher niobium. Depletion of the primary strengthening element niobium in the surrounding regions of Laves promoted crack propagation. Because EB welds had finer and lower amount of Laves, EB weldments exhibited superior mechanical properties compared with GTA weldments.