Uses
Inconel is often encountered in extreme environments. It is common in gas turbine blades, seals, and combustors, as well as turbocharger rotors and seals, electric submersible well pump motor shafts, high temperature fasteners, chemical processing and pressure vessels, heat exchanger tubing, steam generators in nuclear pressurized water reactors, natural gas processing with contaminants such as H2S and CO2, firearm sound suppressor blast baffles, and Formula One and NASCAR exhaust systems. It is also used in the turbo system of the 3rd Generation Mazda RX7, and the exhaust systems of high powered rotary engined Norton motorcycles where exhaust temperatures reach more than 1,000 degrees C. Inconel is increasingly used in the boilers of waste incinerators. The Joint European Torus vessel is made in Inconel. Inconel 718 is commonly used for cryogenic storage tanks, downhole shafts and wellhead parts.
North American Aviation constructed the skin of the X-15 rocket plane out of an Inconel alloy known as "Inconel X".
Rocketdyne used Inconel X-750 for the thrust chamber of the F-1 rocket engine used in the first stage of the Saturn V Booster.
Inconel is also used for the lightweight sport exhaust of recent supercars, the McLaren MP4-12C, the Pagani Huayra, the Aston Martin One-77 and the Koenigsegg Agera.
Inconel is also used in the construction of higher end firearms sound suppressors and muzzle devices. This is especially common in suppressors designed to be especially small or for use with machine guns.
Inconel was also used for various liquid gas tanks in the Apollo space program, including the Oxygen tanks which were inspected after the Apollo 13 incident.
Rolled Inconel was frequently used as the recording medium by engraving in black box recorders on aircraft.
Alternatives to the use of Inconel in chemical applications such as scrubbers, columns, reactors, and pipes are Hastelloy, perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) lined carbon steel or fiber reinforced plastic.
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