Thermal shock resistance of a NiCrAlY-coated Alloy 625 system produced by laser powder bed fusion

Additive Manufacturing offers an innovative route for producing high-quality parts in various fields. A bi-material system, consisting in a NiCrAlY bond coat deposited onto a Ni-based Alloy 625 substrate, was manufactured by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). Test samples were prepared and included sol-gel ceramic ZrO2(Y2O3) top coats as well as a specific grain boundary serration (GBS) heat treatment for promoting high temperature resistance. These specimens were subjected to very severe thermal shock cycles between 950 °C and 300 °C, characterized by steep heating and air quenching rates in a state-of-the-art burner rig designed to render gas turbine conditions, and their integrity was compared. While LPBFed NiCrAlY coatings were relatively spared from degradations due to thermal shocks, ceramic top coats exhibited clear spallation. Poor bonding was particularly experienced by specimens subjected to the GBS heat treatment due to the unavoidable formation therein of surface oxides. Numerous cracks were detected within NiCrAlY bond coats, both in tested specimens as well as in pre-cycled as-built ones, which suggested a dominant role of the LPBF process known for generating residual stress. Heat treated specimens exhibited nearly no cracking. Hardness was found to significantly increase within as-built NiCrAlY bond coats as a result of heat exposure during thermal shock cycling and was attributed to precipitations. The fully recrystallized microstructure of heat treated specimens, on the other hand, was found more stable. The present study completes a series of investigations demonstrating the great potential for manufacturing excellent high temperature structural components by means of LPBF as opposed to more constraining conventional routes.