High pressure single turbine blade tip repair with laser cladding

• Main Authors: SANKARANARAYANAN, SRIKANTH, GUO, WEN, TAYLOR, CLYDE R
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 23.01.2008
• Subjects: BLASTING; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; COMBINED OPERATIONS; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; ENGINE PLANTS IN GENERAL; HEATING; LIGHTING; MACHINE TOOLS; MACHINES OR ENGINES IN GENERAL; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NON-POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, e.g. STEAMTURBINES; OTHER WORKING OF METAL; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; STEAM ENGINES; TRANSPORTING; UNIVERSAL MACHINE TOOLS; WEAPONS; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

Methods are provided for repairing a damaged section of an air-cooled turbine blade (100), the blade (100) having a first wall (114), a second wall (116), a trailing edge (140), and a plurality of cooling holes (132), the plenum (131) formed between the first and second walls (114, 116) and having a predetermined shape, and the plurality of cooling holes (132) formed on the trailing edge (140) in flow communication with the plenum (131) and having predetermined shapes. In one embodiment, and by way of example only, the method includes the steps of injecting (408) a filler material into the blade plenum (131) and the plurality of blade cooling holes (132), the filler material capable of solidifying into the predetermined shapes of the blade plenum (131) and blade cooling holes (132). Then, the damaged section of the blade (100) is laser welded and machined to original dimensions. Next, the filler material is removed.