Optimization of the Mechanical and Corrosion Resistance of Alloy 625 through Aging Treatments

In the as-annealed condition, the nickel-based Alloy 625 has excellent mechanical and corrosion properties compared to those of common stainless steels. This peculiarity enables its exploitation in several industrial fields at cryogenic and high temperatures and in the presence of severely corrosive atmospheres. However, in this alloy, when high-temperature plastic deformation processes and heat treatments are not carefully optimized, the occurrence of excessive grain coarsening can irremediably deteriorate the mechanical strength, possibly leading to incompatibility with the standard requirements. Therefore, this research work investigated the possibility of adopting single- and double-aging treatments aimed at improving such strength loss. Their optimization involved identifying the best compromise between the hardening effect and the loss in corrosion resistance induced by the simultaneous formation of intergranular chromium-rich carbides during aging. The investigation of the aging treatments was performed using hardness, tensile and intergranular corrosion tests considering different time–temperature combinations in a range from 621 °C to 732 °C. Double aging resulted in a considerable acceleration in the hardening response compared to single aging. However, even after its optimization in terms of both temperature and time, the intergranular corrosion resistance remained a critical aspect. Among all the tested conditions, only single aging at 621 °C for 72 h was acceptable in terms of both mechanical and corrosion properties. The influence of longer exposures will be investigated in a future study.