Analysis of key factors affecting the large-scale production of high-temperature alloy materials

High temperature alloys, as key materials capable of long-term service in complex environments above 600 ℃, are widely used in core fields such as aerospace, power, and petrochemicals. Their large-scale production process is influenced by multiple factors such as raw material supply, technological processes, and market demand, and bottlenecks in each link collectively pose challenges to industrial expansion. ​

Due to its complex composition, high-temperature alloys have strict requirements for the purity and quality of key elements such as nickel, cobalt, chromium, and molybdenum. Harmful impurities such as trace sulfur and phosphorus can significantly reduce the high-temperature performance of the material, and low impurity raw materials must be used in production. However, some rare elements have concentrated global reserves (such as cobalt resources mainly distributed in a few countries), and their supply stability is vulnerable to geopolitical and international market fluctuations. Once the raw material supply chain breaks, it will directly hinder large-scale production, so enterprises need to build a diversified supply system. For example, Jiangsu Baochen Nickel Alloy Co., Ltd. expands domestic and foreign resource cooperation to ensure continuous supply of raw materials. The level of resource recycling also constrains mass production capacity. The utilization rate of high-temperature alloy return materials in the United States reaches 70% -90%, while most of the return materials in China can only be downgraded for use, resulting in resource waste and high costs. Improving the efficient recycling technology of return materials (such as precise sorting and purity regeneration) and industrialization mechanism has become a key breakthrough in reducing production costs and supporting large-scale production. ​

The production of high-temperature alloys involves multiple complex processes such as special smelting, precision casting, forging, and welding, with extremely high technical barriers. Although advanced smelting technologies such as vacuum induction melting and electric slag remelting can improve the purity of alloys, they require high equipment investment and operating costs, and demand strict financial strength from enterprises. At the same time, high-temperature alloys have poor plasticity, complex microstructure, and are prone to problems such as mixed crystals and uneven microstructure during the forming process, which puts extreme demands on process control accuracy. Taking laser additive manufacturing technology as an example, in the application of nickel based high-temperature alloys, the stability and controllability of component quality are insufficient due to multiple factors such as powder quality, alloy composition, and printing parameters, making it difficult to achieve mass production. Therefore, developing efficient and stable production processes and improving technological maturity (such as Jiangsu Baochen Nickel Alloy Co., Ltd. overcoming multiple process difficulties through continuous research and development) have become the technological core for breaking through large-scale production. ​