Nickel 500 (or Nickel K 500) achieves increased strength and hardness while maintaining the corrosion resistance exemplified by Nickel 400 by adding Aluminum and Titanium and tightly controlling the thermal processing. This thermal processing, often referred to as ‘aging’ or ‘age-hardening’, forms microscopic substructures within the material that is absent in many other Nickel grades. Applications include those that combine needs for exceptional corrosion resistance found in Nickel alloys with strength requirements that exceed those of Nickel 400 & 405.
Nickel 500 has approximately 3 times the yield strength and double the tensile strength when compared with Nickel 400.
Details
Nickel K500 is a nickel-based copper alloy (63% Ni, 33% Cu) with additions of aluminum and titanium, which enables the alloy to be precipitation hardened.
This alloy has similar corrosion resistance to Nickel 400 but has the added advantage of much higher mechanical strength and hardness while maintaining good ductility and impact strength.
The increased strength comes from the fine precipitation of Ni3 (TiAl) particles throughout the solid solution substructure, during the aging part of the heat treatment process.
The alloy has the added advantage of low magnetic permeability properties down to low temperatures -150ºF (-101ºc) which makes it a valuable alloy for the application of instruments working at sub-zero temperatures.
Its resistance to stress corrosion cracking gives this alloy a wide range of potential applications in chemical and salt-water environments.
Nickel K500 has high fatigue strength in seawater and is resistant to impingement attack, which makes it ideal for propellers, shafts, and fasteners.
The alloy can be used in non-oxidizing chloride solutions and is resistant to de-aerated hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acids.
It is not recommended in oxidizing acids such as nitric and ammonia containing systems, due to the copper content of the alloy.
