Additive manufacturing of alloy 718 (UNS N07718) has been largely accepted into many industries and
is steadily gaining a foothold in oil and gas applications, primarily in applications involving
limited loading conditions in non-corrosive environments. Wrought UNS N07718, a nickel alloy known
for its high strength and purpose-built corrosion resistance, has an impressive record of field
performance in very demanding oil and gas applications including directional drilling. A broader
applicability for additively manufactured UNS N07718 in corrosion applications is currently
conditioned by characterization efforts limited to baseline corrosion testing. Additionally,
testing has focused on machined surfaces, which are not representative of the surface resulting
from additive manufacturing processes. The lack of information regarding corrosion behavior in the
as-printed surface condition for this alloy produced using additive manufacturing continues to
limit its applicability to the machined surface condition, thus negating benefits gained during the
manufacturing process. In this study, the pitting and stress corrosion cracking behavior of
additively manufactured UNS N07718 under a variety of surface conditions is investigated. These
conditions included machined, as-printed, shot peened, and treated by a micro-machining process.
Results from electrochemical and slow strain rate testing in a 2.25 M chloride-containing
environment at elevated temperatures are presented and discussed with regards to the influence of
surface quality and microstructural peculiarities determined with surface characterization and
advanced microscopy on the corrosion resistance of additively manufactured UNS N07718. Experimental
results have shown that as- printed surfaces are clearly more susceptible to corrosion and require
adequate post-processing surface treatments to restore the expected corrosion resistance of UNS
N07718.