Heat treatments of alm formed metal mixes to form super alloys
AssigneeMaterials Solutions
InventorGORDON GREEN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of forming an article includes forming a layer of a mixture of at least two distinct metal powders selected such that when combined they are chemically in the proportions of a superalloy containing a gamma prime phase, and fusing the powders locally without diffusion to define the shape of a part of the article such that the materials of the distinct metal powders remain substantially chemically segregated forming regions of different chemical composition. The method further includes repeating the forming and fusing until the derived article is formed, and heat treating the finished article such that at least one of the distinct separate materials diffuses to form a gamma prime phase containing superalloy with the other.
Claims12
A method of forming a superalloy article comprising:
- (i) selecting and mixing two or more powder components that chemically add to the proportions of the desired superalloy;
- (ii) performing ALM processing on the mixture whereby a substantially dense ‘mix’ in the shape of an article that is not the desired superalloy but which is characterised as having a sufficiently low stress not to crack during building or subsequent heat treatment;
- and
- (iii) heat treating the article to form the desired superalloy without cracking.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.