Precipitation evolution in a Ti-free and Ti-containing stainless maraging steel

Stainless maraging steels have a Cr content higher than 12wt% and show a excellent combination of high strength and ductility, which make them attractive for use in machinery fields and aircraft applications. The massive increase of strength during ageing treatment of maraging steels is related to a precipitation sequence of various nm-scaled intermetallic phases. The peak hardness especially in Ti-containing maraging steels can be reached after short-time ageing at temperatures around 500 degrees C. However, precipitation reactions in different stainless maraging steels are not fully understood, especially the evolution from clustering over growing to coarsening. In the present work a commercial maraging steel and a Ti-containing model alloy are investigated and compared to each other. The steels were isothermally heat treated at 525 degrees C for a range of times. Special emphasis was laid on the correlation of hardness to the formation and presence of different kinds of precipitates. The isothermal aged samples were investigated by using two advanced three-dimensional energy compensated atom probes (LEAP and 3DAP) both in voltage mode and in laser mode. The atom probe data were correlated to standard hardness measurements. The results show that the partial substitution of Al by Ti results in a different precipitation behaviour. While the Ti-free maraging steel exhibit only one type of precipitate, the Ti-containing grade shows a change in the type of precipitates during ageing. However, this change leads to an accelerated coarsening and thus to a faster drop in hardness.