Method for making or repairing a gas turbine engine component
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJames A. Martus, Paul P. Mehta, Seetharamaiah Mannava
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for making or repairing a gas turbine engine component includes the step of directing a pulsed ultra-violet laser beam on a location of a film cooling hole after application of a thermal barrier coating to athermally remove any coating material which may be obstructing the cooling hole without damaging the engine component or removing any of the coating from the surface of the component around the cooling hole.
Claims18
A method for making a gas turbine engine component, comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a plurality of cooling holes through a surface of the gas turbine engine component at selected locations thereof;
- (b) depositing a layer of thermal barrier coating (TBC) material with a chosen thickness on the surface of the component;
- and
- (c) removing any thermal barrier coating (TBC) material obstructing any of the plurality of cooling holes by directing a pulsed ultraviolet laser beam on the selected location of the obstructed hole to athermally remove the TBC material without damaging the component.
A method for removing an obstruction from a channel formed in a gas turbine engine component comprising the step of directing a laser beam on a location of the obstruction to athermally remove the obstruction without damaging the component.
A method for removing TBC material from a selected surface of a gas turbine engine component, comprising the steps of:
- applying a laser beam to a chosen location of the component;
- and
- moving at least one of the component and the laser beam relative to one another, in response to a CNC part program used to originally make the component, to cause the laser beam to scan across the selected surface to athermally remove at least a portion of the TBC material to bring the component within design specifications after a repair operation.
A method for repairing a gas turbine engine component, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a damaged gas turbine engine component;
- and
- (b) applying a laser beam on a surface of the engine component to athermally remove at least one layer of material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.