Recovery Act - Advanced Laser Machining Techniques for Cooling Holes in Gas Turbines

The effectiveness of current airfoil cooling strategies is limited by the manufacturing processes used to fabricate cooling holes in gas turbine components. Current manufacturing processes are either too costly or generate holes with widely varying air flow characteristics. These limitations lead to design compromises that decrease turbine efficiency and increase fuel consumption and cost. Physical Sciences Inc. will develop a high speed guided laser drilling process that will improve the predictability and repeatability of cooling hole performance and meet manufacturing cost objectives. The guided laser drilling process will also enable cost effective machining of shaped cooling holes to enable sophisticated turbine cooling strategies to be implemented. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: High speed small holes drilling techniques will benefit the aerospace industry by enabling higher efficiency gas turbine propulsion systems for commercial aircraft. In addition, the development of high speed water guided laser drilling processes can be used to improve automotive fuel injectors, drill holes in ceramic circuit boards and potentially be used in laser dentistry