Efficient Engine Repair Process

Many internal gas turbine engine components experience wear during normal operation and require rebuilding of worn surfaces or replacement of worn features. Quite often these repairs are  unnecessarily costly (money and time) resulting from the need for setup on multiple machines to complete the repair. The repair typically consists of measurement, replacement of material through welding/cladding, thermal stress relief, measurement, machining, and, final inspection. Currently, the operations described above are performed on separate machines, and in the case of stress relief, in an industrial oven. Great efficiency, and cost reduction, can be achieved if the measurements, welding/cladding and machining could occur on one machine with stress relief following the machining operation. Converting high distortion gas tungsten arc welding process to laser welding/cladding holds promise to perform stress relief after machining. Incorporating laser scanning technology with adaptive path following into “hybrid” laser metal deposition equipment would enable the entire weld/clad and machining repair process to be accomplished on one machine.