High strength nickel alloy welds through precipitation hardening

• Main Authors: AYER RAGHAVAN, FORD STEVEN JEFFREY, THIRUMALAI NEERAJ SRINIVAS, FAIRCHILD DOUGLAS PAUL, LILLIG DANIEL B, JIN HYUN-WOO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.06.2009
• Subjects: ALLOYS; CHANGING THE PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF NON-FERROUS METALS ANDNON-FERROUS ALLOYS; CHEMISTRY; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; GENERAL DEVICES FOR HEAT TREATMENT OF FERROUS OR NON-FERROUSMETALS OR ALLOYS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; LAYERED PRODUCTS; LAYERED PRODUCTS, i.e. PRODUCTS BUILT-UP OF STRATA OF FLAT ORNON-FLAT, e.g. CELLULAR OR HONEYCOMB, FORM; MACHINE TOOLS; MAKING METAL MALLEABLE BY DECARBURISATION, TEMPERING OR OTHERTREATMENTS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; METALLURGY; METALLURGY OF IRON; MODIFYING THE PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF FERROUS METALS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TRANSPORTING; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

Provided are precipitation hardened high strength nickel based alloy welds that yield improved properties and performance in joining high strength metals. The advantageous weldments include two or more segments of ferrous or non-ferrous components, and fusion welds, friction stir welds, electron beam welds, laser beam welds, or a combination thereof bonding adjacent segments of the components together, wherein the welds comprise a precipitation hardened nickel based alloy weld metal composition including greater than or equal to 1.4 wt % of combined aluminum and titanium based on the total weight of the nickel based alloy weld metal composition. Also provided are methods for forming the welds from the nickel based alloy weld compositions, wherein the precipitation hardening occurs in the as-welded condition. The nickel based welds do not require a separate heat treatment step after welding to produce advantageous strength properties.