Tribological characterization of the LASER sintered and unsintered Inconel 718 in dry sliding condition

Inconel 718 is a super alloy currently employed in aerospace, oil and gas industries, defence, jet engines etc., where it is used in the harsh working environment. Due to the excellent creep and fatigue behavior, the Inconel is most preferable in the above applications. Among the additive manufacturing processes Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is used to fabricate the Inconel components with high dimensional accuracy with less wastage of material. In the present work, dry sliding wear behavior of the laser sintered and conventionally manufactured Inconel 718 was investigated using pin on disc tribometer at room temperature as per ASTM G99 standard. Surface morphology of the worn samples were studied using scanning electron microscope. The presence of the nickel based element were confirmed using EDAX analysis. The results revels that, LASER sintered Inconel components shows the excellent wear resistance as compared to conventionally manufactured components. This is due to less porosity, high density and extreme surface micro hardness of the laser sintered components. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.