Casting of precipitation-hardening steel

17-4 PH and its cast equivalent Cb7Cu-1 are stainless precipitation-hardening steels with high strength and good corrosion resistance. Literature shows that the material properties can be tailored in detail by fine-tuning alloy composition and heat treatment. However, the result is also very sensitive to small changes in production environment. The goal of this literature survey has been to define which parameters are essential to make it possible to cast material involving extremely thin sections with d ≤ 1 mm. It has also taken into account the precipitation and hardening mechanisms of the material throughout the different process steps as well as possible means to analyze the resulting material. Additional theoretical calculations have been performed in order to suggest an optimized alloy for subsequent casting trials. The work has been performed within the CLEAN SKY project LEAN: Development of light-weight steel castings for efficient aircraft engines