A study on the additive manufacturing of a high chromium Nickel-based superalloy by extreme high-speed laser metal deposition

•Superalloy K648 was manufactured by extreme high-speed laser metal deposition.•The microstructure features were revealed for K648 superalloy made by EHLMD.•The yield and ultimate strengths were tested for K648 superalloy made by EHLMD. Nickel-based superalloys have been widely used in manufacturing turbine blades, vanes, and discs of aircrafts and power generators that serve in challenging environment. In order to meet the requirements for rapid manufacturing of these large-scale and high-performance components, the extreme high-speed laser metal deposition (EHLMD) technology have attracted great attention in recent years. The EHLMD technology can significantly improve the efficiency compared with conventional laser metal deposition (LMD). Meanwhile, the solidification condition and the resultant microstructures and mechanical properties can also be dramatically changed. In this study, a high chromium superalloy (K648) has been additively manufacturing by using EHLMD for the first time. The key process parameters and the resulted microstructure and mechanical properties are investigated. The results have shown that the most important factors affecting the height, width, and depth of the single-track deposit of EHLMD K648 superalloy are powder feeding rate, laser power, and scanning speed, respectively. The height and the width of the deposits are the largest when the laser power, scanning speed, and the powder feeding rate are 1400 W, 25 m/min, and 30 g/min. There exist some incomplete fusions in the interlayer region and some pores in the interior region of the multi-track-multi-layer deposits. Columnar grains grow in the build direction within each layer, while equiaxed grains tend to form in the interlayer region. The average value of microhardness of EHLMD K648 superalloy is about 298.1 HV. The ultimate strength of EHLMD K648 superalloy is slightly lower than that of the forging GH648 superalloy but higher than that of the conventional LMD K648 superalloy.