Effect of different thermomechanical processing on structure and mechanical properties of electron beam melted niobium

Among the refractory metals and alloys, niobium and niobium alloys are used in variety of high temperature applications ranging from light bulbs to rocket engines because of its high melting and boiling point, lower density, good ductility at room temperature and high corrosion resistance. In this paper the effects of different thermomechanical processing on structure and mechanical properties of electron beam melted niobium ingot was investigated. The correlation among the different processing conditions and microstructure as well as mechanical properties have been investigated using optical microscope, SEM, UTM and microhardness testing. The results show that the cold forging response of EB melted ingot was very poor, where as oxidation resistant coated ingot and ingot sealed in evacuated stainless steel jacket were successfully forged at 900 °C. The cast and hot forged EBM niobium ingot was cold rolled without any intermediate annealing. The hot forged, cold rolled and annealed niobium sheets exhibit better strength as compared to cold rolled and annealed niobium sheets. The mechanical properties of all the niobium sheets processed by using different processing conditions are superior to the properties specified by ASTM standard.