Characterization of Corrosion Behavior on Additively Manufactured Alloys

Abstract Additively manufactured metallic components are relatively novel and highly sought as final product to replace traditional cast or wrought counterparts in defense sector. The experience accumulated through welding process development indicates that corrosion properties of additively manufactured metallic parts result from the intrinsic heterogeneities and microstructural variations from manufacturing processes. Their corrosion behaviour and the interaction with environment are not well investigated and documented which poses potential impact on performance and integrity. In this study, two electrochemical techniques were used to characterize corrosion behavior of 17-4 PH stainless steel (UNS S17400), Inconel 625 (UNS N06625) and Ti-6Al-4V (UNS R56400) produced by power bed fusion process at different spatial scale. The susceptibility to localized corrosion is evaluated in both flat cell and microcell with comparison to wrought counterparts. Microcell technique permits electrochemical measurement in a small spatial scale, and it can be considered as a promising nondestructive testing method for additively manufactured metallic final part.