Method for surface enhancement by fluid jet impact

Abstract

A process for manufacturing a component in which residual tensile stresses are present in the component surface as a result of the operation by which the surface was produced. The process generally entails removing residual tensile stresses and inducing compressive stresses in the surface of a component by controlled impacting of the surface with two or more jets of fluid. An additional benefit of this invention is that damaged surface regions of the component can be removed simultaneously with residual tensile stresses by abrading the damaged surface region with a jet of abrasive fluid. The fluid jet employed to abrade the component surface is preferably at a pressure of at least 1360 bar, while the fluid jet employed to induce compressive stresses in the component surface is preferably at a pressure of at least 1700 bar. The second fluid jet can be operated to remove any embedded abrasive grit remaining from the first fluid jet operation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.