Repairing or resuming production of a component made of composite material

A process for repairing a composite material component for a gas turbine, the component comprising a fiber reinforcement having a three-dimensional weave between a plurality of warp threads and a plurality of weft threads, said fiber reinforcement being densified by a matrix, said densified fiber reinforcement extending in width between a downstream end and an upstream end in an axial direction and in thickness between an inner surface and an outer surface in a radial direction, the axial and radial directions being defined with reference to an axis of the component, the process comprising:

• identifying at least one damaged area in the component,
• making a hollowed-out portion by removing the composite material at the at least one damaged area so as to form a hollowed-out portion extending through an entire thickness of the fiber reinforcement,
• three-dimensionally weaving a fiber preform of a filler piece,
• placing the composite material filler piece fiber preform in a free volume of the component delimited by the hollowed-out portion,
• impregnating, before or after placing the filler piece fiber preform in the hollowed-out portion, said preform with a matrix resin precursor,
• polymerizing the resin into the matrix in order to obtain a composite material filler piece comprising a 3D-woven fiber preform, said composite material filler piece occupying the volume defined by the hollowed-out portion,
• wherein making the hollowed-out portion comprises forming at least two opposing edges each comprising first and second bevels, the filler piece fiber preform comprising a first part having a geometry complementary to a part of a volume of the hollowed-out portion defined between the first bevels of the opposing edges and a second part having a geometry complementary to the other part of the volume of the hollowed-out portion defined between the second bevels of the opposing edges, and the first and second parts of the filler piece fiber preform are bonded together by weaving.

A process for manufacturing a composite material component for a gas turbine engine, the process comprising weaving a fibrous texture in the form of a strip into a single piece by three-dimensional weaving, shaping said texture by winding on a support tooling so as to form a fiber reinforcement of the component and densifying the fiber reinforcement by a matrix, said densified fiber reinforcement extending in width between a downstream end and an upstream end in an axial direction and in thickness between an inner surface and an outer surface in a radial direction, the axial and radial directions being defined with reference to an axis of the component, the process comprising:

• identifying at least one non-conforming area in the component,
• making a hollowed-out portion by removing the composite material at the at least one non-conforming area so as to form a hollowed-out portion extending through an entire thickness of the fiber reinforcement,
• three-dimensionally weaving a fiber preform of the filler piece,
• placing the filler piece fiber preform in a free volume of the component delimited by the hollowed-out portion,
• impregnating, before or after placing the filler piece fiber preform in the hollowed-out portion, said preform with a matrix resin precursor,
• polymerizing the resin into the matrix in order to obtain a composite material filler piece comprising a 3D-woven fiber preform, said composite material filler piece occupying the volume defined by the hollowed-out portion,
• wherein making the hollowed-out portion comprises forming at least two opposing edges each comprising first and second bevels, the filler piece fiber preform comprising a first part having a geometry complementary to a part of a volume of the hollowed-out portion defined between the first bevels of the opposing edges and a second part having a geometry complementary to the other part of the volume of the hollowed-out portion defined between the second bevels of the opposing edges.