Structural characterization and solvus/precipitation temperature determination of optimized VDM Alloy 780 Ni-base superalloy

It is planned to study the constituting phases and their solvus and precipitation temperatures of the new developed Ni base superalloy VDM 780 (developed for high temperature applications that require good mechanical properties and oxidation resistance) after an industrial optimization of the heat treatments and composition. First structure characterization was performed after 3 heat treatments designed to set up specific microstructures: only matrix with high temperature precipitates or also with different gamma’ hardening precipitates. After the industrial optimization, we want to study the phases and their solvus temperature in order to correlate these results with the heat treatments, composition and their mechanical properties. The final aim is to understand the process in order to adjust the heat treatments optimized and particularly designed for different specific applications.