Laser cladding of the titanium alloy TI6242 to restore damaged blades

Abstract

Integrally bladed rotor disks are used to an increasing extent in low-pressure compressors (LPC) and highpressure compressors (HPC) of aero engines. These bladed disks are referred to as blisks.One of the objectives pursued under the EU sponsored AWFORS project is to test laser cladding for its suitability to restore damaged blades of titanium blisks. This paper describes details of the laser cladding process to manufacture conventional and blade-like specimens in the titanium alloy Ti6242 and the characterization of build-up welds by evaluation of their microstructure, hardness survey and residual stress measurements.The crucial point with regard to the application of laser cladding to replace damaged titanium blisks blades is the verification that the strength properties are not reduced. For this reason, another focus of this paper is on mechanical testing of laser clad specimens of Ti6242. Tensile and fatigue tests on conventional and blade-like specimens were performed. Both the tensile strength and the fatigue strength of laser clad specimens exceed the corresponding strength values of Ti6242 base material.Altogether the results show that laser cladding is a highly promising technology to restore damaged blades of titanium blisks.

Characterization of laser powder deposited Ti–TiC composites and functional gradient materials

“…While the bulk properties of LPD CP titanium are characterized as low oxygen absorption and good metallurgical quality. It has been proven that laser powder deposition can produce sound titanium alloy parts with properties comparable to those commonly processed (Wu et al, 2004;Arcella and Froes, 2000;Richter et al, 2004). High performance Ti-matrix composites reinforced with TiB, TiC, SiC TiB 2 , etc.…”

“…LPD has been successfully used to fabricate rib-on-web structures from titanium alloy for the aeronautical industry, and to repair high-value components for advanced industries, such as worn blades and the blisks of engines, etc. (Wu et al, 2004;Arcella and Froes, 2000;Richter et al, 2004). A unique characteristic of LPD is its ability to deposit dissimilar materials, * Corresponding author.…”

Numerical simulation and experimental validation of powder flux distribution in coaxial laser cladding

“…There are some works that shows laser cladding results with aeronautical alloys such as Ti6Al4V (Miranda et al, 2008), nickel based alloys (Paul et al, 2007) or magnesium alloys (Yang and Wu, 2008). Thus, the application of laser cladding for aeronautical parts repairing and direct manufacturing is becoming a relevant target for the aeronautical industry (Ritcher et al, 2004;Sexton et al, 2002).…”

Investigation on Material's Fatigue Property Variation Among Different Regions of Directional Solidification Turbine Blades—Part II: Fatigue Tests on Bladelike Specimens

“…And Richter etc. conducted tensile and fatigue tests on bodylike specimens to test the suitability of laser cladding to restore damaged blades [14]. The test results obtained from blade like specimens play an important role in theoretical modeling for blade life design.…”