The binary Fe–Ni system offers alloys with notably low linear coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), contingent upon their Ni content. In this respect twin-wire arc additive manufacturing (T-WAAM) presents the opportunity of in-situ alloying through the simultaneous feeding of two metal wires into a weld pool to obtain desired alloy compositions. This study aims to deposit a graded wall with Ni contents targeted at 42, 46, and 52 wt% in the building direction of the wall, along with a block comprising of 46 wt% Ni, employing the T-WAAM approach. The results show effective incorporation of additional Ni into the weld pool and geometrically stable weld beads in the continuous metal transfer mode during the T-WAAM process. This mode led to the defect-free and chemically stable deposition of the graded wall and the block with average Ni contents of 42.3 ± 1.1, 45.8 ± 1.4, 52.6 ± 0.8 wt%, and 46.4 ± 0.9 wt%, respectively. The measured Curie temperatures of the as-deposited alloys and the mean CTE values of alloy 46 were found to be comparable to the commercial alloys. In summary, this study validates the feasibility of in-situ deposition of low thermal expansion alloy compositions, thereby enabling the possibility of on-demand thermal expansion properties.

Invar alloys exhibit low thermal expansion and are useful in applications requiring dimensional stability when subject to temperature changes. Conventional production of Invar faces certain challenges that can be offset by exploiting additive manufacturing processes. This study employed pulsed gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) to deposit Invar 36 alloy blocks at five heat inputs (HI) ranging from 200 to 550 J mm⁻¹. The results show that the microstructure comprised of columnar grains and remained in the austenitic phase regardless of the HI. Ductility dip cracking was found to prevail in all the blocks except the block deposited at the lowest HI. The decreased susceptibility to cracking with a reduction in the HI was due to the preservation of the grain boundary area, consequently leading to an improved partitioning of strain among the grain boundaries. On lowering the HI from 550 to 200 J mm⁻¹ the average yield strength, tensile strength and elongation improved by 16%, 23% and 38%, respectively. The HI had a negligible effect on the mean linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) in different temperature ranges as the CTE values were nearly identical between the blocks deposited at 200 and 550 J mm⁻¹. In general, the CTE in the building direction was slightly higher than the travel direction, with a maximum difference between the CTE of the two directions being 15%. In summary, this work demonstrates the application of the cold wire GTAW process as an alternative to conventional/laser based methods for realizing the functional properties of Invar.

Isothermal heat treatments below the martensite start temperature are carried out in a 0.25C-1.4Mn-1.4Si-0.32Mo steel (in wt%). The microstructural observation reveals a combination of tempered lath and plate martensite, accompanied by bainite and retained austenite. The temperature variation of the austenitic carbon content under different constrained equilibrium models is calculated and compared with experimental measurements. Neither of the existing models seems to predict the behavior of the measured austenitic carbon content in the temperature range studied. The results suggest that the diffusional formation of bainite governs the carbon content of austenite at temperatures nearby the M_S.

Additive manufacturing of NiTi shape memory alloys has attracted attention in recent years, due to design flexibility and feasibility to achieve four-dimensional (4D) function response. To obtain customized 4D functional responses in NiTi structures, tailorable phase transformation temperatures and stress windows as well as one-way or two-way shape memory properties are required. To achieve this goal, various heat treatments, including direct aging, annealing and annealing followed by aging, were optimized for the Ti-rich NiTi (Ni49.6Ti (at. %)) fabricated by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Microstructural evolution, phase transformation, precipitation and shape memory behaviour were systematically investigated by multiscale correlative microstructural, differential scanning calorimetry analysis and thermomechanical analysis. Based on optimized heat treatments, ∼25 K phase transformation temperature windows and ∼90 MPa stress windows were achieved for the one-way shape memory effect. Solutionized annealing was found to be the most effective way to improve one-way shape memory degradation resistance, due to the reduction of defects and solid solution strengthening. One of the main findings of this study is that the heterogonous microstructures between hard intergranular Ti₂NiO_x and soft NiTi matrix, induced by solutionized annealing with subsequent aging, result in strain partitioning and enclosing the internal stress state, which was found to promote a pronounced two-way shape memory effect response. The results of this work provide in-depth knowledge on tailoring and designing functional shape memory characteristics via heat treatments, which contributes to expanding L-PBF NiTi application fields, such as biomedical implants, aerospace components, and other advanced engineering applications.