Effect of Hf and Y alloy additions on aluminide coating performance

Iron- and Ni-base alloys, with and without Hf or Hf and Y alloy additions, were aluminized by chemical vapor deposition to study the potential for minor alloy additions to improve oxidation resistance of coated alloys. Compared to uncoated specimens, the coated specimens showed improved cyclic oxidation resistance at 1100° and 1150 °C. However, alumina scale spallation was observed at relatively short times and, particularly for the Ni-base alloy X, the aluminized lab-cast alloy with Hf tended to have poor coating performance compared to the commercial alloy without Hf. Internal oxidation of Hf at 1150 °C and rapid Al depletion in the relatively thin aluminide coatings contributed to the observed detrimental Hf effect. For the Ni-base alloys, the increased scale spallation could be attributed to much higher S contents (10–50 ppma) in the laboratory-cast alloys. Oxide scale spallation from the coating surface was minimized when Hf and Y were added to a casting and the [Y]/[S] content ratio was ∼ 1.