Metal alloy products may be prepared, for example, using ingot metallurgy operations. Ingot metallurgy operations involve the melting of alloy feedstock and the casting of the molten material to form an ingot. A non-limiting example of an ingot metallurgy operation is a “triple melt” technique, which includes three melting operations: (1) vacuum induction melting (VIM) to prepare a desired alloy composition from feedstock; (2) electroslag refining (ESR), which may reduce levels of, for example, oxygen-containing inclusions; and (3) vacuum arc remelting (VAR), which may reduce levels of volatile alloy components and compositional segregation that may occur during solidification after ESR.
The alloy ingots formed from ingot metallurgy operations may be hot worked to produce other alloy products. For example, after solidification to form an alloy ingot, the ingot may undergo forging and/or extrusion to form a billet or other alloy article from the ingot.