The cast versions of the nickel-base alloys do
not have the same corrosion resistance as the
corresponding wrought products, mainly due to
the higher carbon and silicon contents and the
anisotropic microstructure of the cast products.
Carbon promotes the formation of carbides, and
silicon is associated with the precipitation of
intermetallic phases, such as m phase. Secondaryphase
compounds are formed during the slow
cooling of the cast parts in the molds. After
casting, high-temperature solution annealing
followed by water quenching is necessary to
remove the secondary phases. The specific heat
treatment depends on the previous history of
the castings, such as silicon content and cooling
rate of the mold. A CX-2MW cast containing
0.52% Si requires a 20 min anneal at 1232 C
(2250 F) followed by water quenching to redissolve
most of the original precipitates. The
performance of a cast nickel-base alloy is generally
based on the microstructural quality, such as
the amount of interdendritic segregation, secondary
carbides, and intermetallic phases. Failures
are commonly attributed to inappropriate casting
techniques or heat treatments. Therefore,
the corrosion rates of cast alloys vary significantly
from one cast to another, even though
the overall composition of the cast part is the
same. Table 4 gives comparative corrosion rates
of several cast alloys as well as the corrosion
rates of the corresponding wrought alloys. In
general, for all environments, the corrosion rate of the wrought alloys was lower than the corrosion
rate of the cast versions. The smallest difference
in behavior was given by the CW-2M/C-4
pair. For the other two alloys in Table 4, the
corrosion rate of the wrought material was considerably
lower than that of the cast version,
especially in the oxidizing solutions containing
chlorides (ASTM G28 Method B and boiling
10% FeCl3). The corrosion behavior of cast versus
wrought material was inverted for the boiling
65% nitric acid (oxidizing conditions), probably
due to the beneficial effect of silicon in the cast
alloys.