BUILDING AND REPAIR OF HOLLOW COMPONENTS
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- disposing a supporting element in a cavity of a component below an opening in a wall of the component;
supporting a filler material comprising a metal powder on the supporting element across the opening;
applying heat to the filler material to melt it across the opening;
allowing the melted filler material to solidify to form a metal deposit across the opening; and
,removing the supporting element and any unconsumed filler material.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of building or repair of a hollow superalloy component (20, 61) by forming an opening (38, 62) in a wall (28) of the component; filling a cavity (22B, 64) behind the opening with a fugitive support material (34, 52, 54, 68) to support a filler powder (36) across the opening; traversing an energy beam (42) across the filler powder to form a deposit (44) that spans and closes the opening; in which the deposit is fused to the edges (32, 62) of the opening. The filler powder includes at least metal, and may further include flux. The support material may include filler powder, a solid (54), a foam (52) insert, a flux powder (34) and/or other ceramic powder (68). Supporting powder may have a mesh size smaller than that of the filler powder.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
disposing a supporting element in a cavity of a component below an opening in a wall of the component; supporting a filler material comprising a metal powder on the supporting element across the opening; applying heat to the filler material to melt it across the opening; allowing the melted filler material to solidify to form a metal deposit across the opening; and
,removing the supporting element and any unconsumed filler material. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method comprising:
-
disposing a powder support material under an opening in a wall of a component; spanning the opening with a filler powder supported by the powder support material, the powder support material comprising a smaller mesh size than the filler powder; traversing an energy beam across the filler powder to melt it across the opening and fuse it to edges of the wall opening; and allowing the melted filler powder to solidify to form a deposit across the opening, wherein the deposit is fused to the wall. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
-
-
20. A method comprising:
-
removing material from a damaged gas turbine component to reveal an opening through a wall of the component into a cooling channel cavity; disposing a support material in the cooling channel cavity under the opening; covering the opening with an alloy powder supported by the support material; traversing a laser beam across the alloy powder to melt it across the opening and fuse it to edges of the wall opening; allowing the melted filler powder to solidify to form a seal across the opening; and removing the support material from the cooling channel cavity.
-
Specification