Due to decrease in casting houses for specific metallic alloys in the United States, the use of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) has become a popular technique for on demand manufacturing. Copper nickel (Cu-Ni) alloys such as Cu-30Ni is a commonly used alloy in marine environments because of its good resistance to corrosion, impingement, and biofouling. To date, current work has not connected how AM processing and its resultant microstructure impacts the dissolution mechanisms of LPBF Cu-30Ni in comparison to conventional Cu-30Ni. In order to evaluate how the AM process effects the microstructure and corrosion behavior of LPBF Cu-30Ni, ASTM etching and potentiodynamic polarization tests were conducted on cast and LPBF Cu-30Ni. Electrochemical results show distinct differences in trends in behavior in 0.6M NaCl but similar trends and behavior in ASTM D1141-98 simulated seawater (ASW) when comparing cast to LPBF. In both solutions, the non-equilibrium microstructure in cast and LPBF is selectively attacked. For cast this includes the dendritic microstructure while in LPBF melt pools boundaries, cellular boundaries, pores, and grains. Following these initial results, further investigation will be conducted to understand the impact of pH and compounds (sulfides and nitrides) in both 0.6M NaCl and ASW.
