Laser powder deposition for making functional net-shape parts and repairing damaged gas turbine compounds

Laser consolidation (LC) is a novel manufacturing process that produces net-shape functional components directly from a CAD model without and moulds or dies. Parts are built layer by layer using a laser beam to melt a controlled amount of injected powder on a substrate to deposit the first layer and on previous passes for the subsequent layers. As an alternative to conventional machining processes, the LC process builds complete net-shape functional parts or features on existing parts by adding instead of removing material. In this paper, laser consolidation of various metallic alloys is demonstrated. The LC process successfully built metallurgically sound Ni-alloys and Ti-alloys samples. The laser consolidated materials exhibit the mechanical properties comparable to respective wrought materials. In addition, several laser consolidated samples were presented to demonstrate the capability of the process to make net-shaped functional components for aerospace applications. Based on the same principle as the laser consolidation but covers surface areas, laser cladding of Ni-alloys and Ti-alloys can also be used to repair damaged aerospace components with much less heat input than the conventional welding methods.Peer reviewed: NoNRC publication: Ye