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Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8480–8485 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

IMME17

Microstructural and mechanical properties of Inconel 718 TIG

weldments

S.Venukumar*, P. Sarkar, J. Sai Sashank, P. Sampath and K Saikiran

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vardhaman College of Engineering-501218, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Abstract

Inconel 718 is widely used super alloy for high temperature applications in aeronautical and aerospace industries. The
present work is to investigate the effect of welding parameters of Inconel 718 alloy welds in the tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding
process. Post weld heat treatment (PWHT) was also carried out at 7500c/8h/furnace cooling followed by 6500c/8h/air cooling on
the weldments. The microstructural and mechanical properties were studied in base metal (BM), weld zone and heat affected
zone (HAZ) with different parameters. Based on the results, the welding parameters were fixed to get the optimum properties for
Inconel 718.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Materials and
Manufacturing Engineering (IMME17).

Keywords: Inconel 718, Superalloy, TIG Welding, Post weld heat treatment (PWHT), HAZ ;

1. Introduction

Inconel 718 is one of the most important nickel base superalloys used between 700 to 900 °C. Nickel provide
resistance to corrosion, oxidation and other damage mechanism acting at high temperature [1]. It is most
commonly used in gas turbine blades, seals, and combustors, as well as turbocharger rotors and seals, electric
submersible well pump motor shafts, high temperature fasteners due to its combination of good mechanical
strength and easy fabric ability both at high and room temperatures. This superalloy is strengthened by the
ordered body-centered tetragonal phase of γ″ (Ni3Nb) and ordered L12 intermetallic phase of γ′ (Ni3(Al, Ti)) [2].

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9849124386.

E-mail address: venukumar24@gmail.com

2214-7853 © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Emerging Trends in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
(IMME17).
 Venukumar et al., / Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8480–8485 8481

Due to high cost of the components made of this superalloy, it is necessary to extend their service life and welding is
widely used to refurbish the worn or damaged parts [2, 3]. The introduction of niobium in Inconel 718 alloy
resulted in a sluggish precipitating reaction of the principal strengthening γ″ phase, and produced a relatively low
strength, high ductility heat affected zone during the initial aging treatment [4]. The improvement in resistance to
strain age cracking and further the prevention of strain-age cracking during post-weld heat treatment (PWHT)
drastically improved weldability and reparability of nickel alloys [5, 6].
Inconel 718 alloy has excellent weldability due to its resistance to strain-age cracking and solidification
cracking [4]. Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), electron beam (EB) and plasma welding have been most widely
used for precipitation-hardened nickel base alloys [7, 8]. Radhakrishna et al. [9] compared the GTA and EB welded
fusion zone microstructures of Inconel 718 and concluded that the faster cooling rate in EB welding process reduces
the level of interdendritic Nb segregation and amount of Laves phase. Sivaprasad and Ganesh Sundara Raman [10]
indicated that magnetic arc oscillated welds had better fatigue resistance than the pulsed current weldments.
Madhusudanreddy et al., [11] mentioned that oscillated beam welds exhibited better mechanical properties than
unoscillated beam welds in both solution-treated and aged and directly aged conditions. Cao et al., [4] pointed out
that postweld aging treatment is enough to strengthen the weld joints. Manikandan et al. [12] found that the
beneficial effect of helium gas with compound current pulse mode on the control of Laves phase formation in the
GTA fusion zone of Inconel 718.
In this paper, cold rolled sheets of the Ni-based Inconel-718 superalloy are employed in TIG welding using
different heat inputs for the base metals. The effect of different heat input on the microstructure and mechanical
properties is studied. A detailed SEM analysis and microhardness across these joints are comprehensively studied.

2. Experimental Procedure

Inconel 718 cold rolled sheets of 2 mm thickness in 975°C solution treated condition were used. The
nominal chemical composition of the as-received base metal and filler metals is shown in Table 1. The selected weld
process parameters have been listed in Table 2. The room temperature tensile properties of the 2-mm thick Inconel
718 alloy sheets in the rolling direction in the solution treated and aged (STA) conditions are indicated in Table 3.

Table 1 Chemical composition of base metal and filler metal

Elements C Mn Si Cr Ni Mo Co Nb+Ta Ti Al B Cu Fe

Base metal 0.08 0.35 0.35 17-21 50-55 2.8-3.0 1.0 4.75-5.5 1.15 0.2-0.8 0.006 0.30 Bal

Filler metal 0.011 2.89 - 19.05 Bal 0.17 - - 0.37 - - - 0.34

Table 2 Welding parameters for initial experiments

Welding current, A 40, 50, 60, 70, 80
Welding speed (mm/s) 2.18
Arc length (mm) 2
Diameter of electrode (mm) 2
Angle of electrode tip 45°
Flow rate of shield gas (99.9% Argon gas) 15 L/min
8482 Venukumar et al..,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8480–8485

Table 3 Mechanical properties of 2 mm Inconel 718 base alloy sheets

Solution treated and aged
Yield strength 0.2% (MPa) 1309
Tensile strength (MPa) 1470
Elongation (%) at 50-mm gage length 19
Hardness (HV) 463

Post weld heat treatment on these weldments was carried out at 720 °C for 8h followed by furnace cooling
to room temperature and again heating to 620 °C at the rate of 50 °C per hour and holding at 620 °C for 8 h followed
by air cooling. Specimens for optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were prepared as per standard
metallographic practices. All metallographic specimens were polished to a 0.3-µm finish, followed by etching in a
solution containing 2 g of CuCl2, 40 mL of CH3OH, and 35 mL of HCl.
Furthermore, to investigate the mechanical properties of the weldments, the specimens are cut as per the
ASTM standards for conducting tensile studies. Tensile studies are performed on the weldments as per ASTM:
E8/8M standards. The samples are tested at a strain rate of 2 mm/min at room temperature. Two test trials on the
weldments are conducted to check the reliability of the results. Microhardness measurements are performed using a
Vickers microhardness tester at a load of 500 g.
3. Results and Discussion
Welding was carried out at five different current setting with similar speed as shown in Table 2. It was
observed that no welding took place with 40 amps current because the temperature generated was too low to melt
the base metal with 50 amps current, incomplete welding was observed due to improper attainment of temperature.
Complete fusion and proper welding took place at 60 amps and 70 amps current. With 80 amps current, welding
width was very high due to attainment of higher temperature. So, it was concluded that proper current to weld
Inconel 718 was around 60 to 70 amps. Following tests were conducted.
3.1 Mechanical Properties

Tensile and hardness at room temperature were carried out after aging treatment for the samples welded at 60
amps and 70 amps current. The results are shown in table 4 along with the specificational value of Inconel 718. It
may be observed that tensile value of the sample welded at 60 amp and 70 amp are 1020 and 1030 MPa respectively
which is around 82 to 83 % of the guaranteed value of unwelded samples of Inconel 718. Typical hardness profiles
across the welds are shown in Fig. 1. It was observed that the fusion zone has similar hardness to that of the fully
heat treated base metal after post weld aging. The increase of hardness in the fusion zone may be related to the re-
precipitation of γ'' [4].

Fig. 1 Effect of post weld heat treatment on hardness distribution.

Table 4 Tensile properties
Post weld heat treatment Welding current, A TS(MPa)
Solution treated and 60 1042
aged
70 1002
 Venukumar et al., / Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8480–8485 8483

3.1 Microstructures

Optical microscopy for the base Inconel 718 was carried out at 500X which showed fine grained structure (ASTM6)
with discrete carbide phase scattered inside the grains (Fig. 2a ) which is quite common for IN718. Welded zone
(carried out at 70 amps current) shows very fine and uniform dendrite structure at 200 X magnification. At 200 X,
few carbide phases were noticed (Fig. 2b). Welded zone with 60 amps current showed dendritic structure at 200X
(Fig. 2c). At 200 magnification carbide phase in the interdendritic spacing and boundary was noticed (Fig. 2c).
Carbides are mostly of titanium and Niobium.

Fig. 2 Metallographs of a) Base metal b) Fusion zone at 70 A c) Fusion zone at 60 A.

3.2 Scanning Electron Microscopy

To identify the phases, back scattering technique was used. The micrograph of samples welded at 60 amps
current is shown in Fig. 3. Welded zone shows dendritic structure with interdendritic spacing where some
segregation has taken place as confirmed by EDAX analysis. White precipitates were analysed and confirmed as
carbides of niobium and titanium.

Fig. 3 The SEM micrographs of the interdendritic regions in the weld fusion zone of the welded samples prepared
using the current of 60 amps (different magnifications).
8484 Venukumar et al..,/ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 8480–8485

The microstructure of welded zone of the samples carried out at 70 amps and base metal are shown in Fig. 4 at
1000X and 1500X respectively. The structure contains dendrites of Inconel 718. Carbides of titanium and niobium
as observed in the samples welded at 60 amps. Only one difference was noticed that the length of the dendrites are
slightly smaller in the samples welded at 70 amps compared to that of 60 amp. This may be attributed to faster
cooling rate due to higher pressure of argon gas during welding at 70 amps compared to that of 60 amps.

Fig. 4 a) The SEM micrographs of the interdendritic regions in the weld fusion zone of the welded sample prepared
using the current of 70 amps b) SE micrograph of base metal.

4. Conclusions

Based on mechanical testing and metallographic study, the following conclusions can be drawn
1) To weld 2 mm thick plates of Inconel 718 current should be controlled between 60 to 70 amps because
lower current will result unsuccessful welding and higher current may give more welding zone
2) The mechanical properties are more than 80 % of the specified value of the base metal. However it can be
further improved by fine tuning the welding parameters.
3) To eliminate the segregation, high temperature annealing may be carried out but it may coarsen the grains
resulting in lower tensile strength.
4) Though Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to see the precipitates of γ' and γ'', the mechanical
properties indicate their presence. TEM study can be carried out in future.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge MIDHANI for supplying strips of Inconel 718.

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