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US 6,639,173 B1Granted
Electron beam welding method providing post-weld heat treatment
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorJohn Thomas Murphy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of forming a welded assembly, wherein an electron beam is used to form a weldment that joins two or more articles to form the welded assembly. The method involves directing a second electron beam onto the weldment in the wake of the welding beam, in a manner that inhibits precipitation of a solutioned precipitation-strengthening phase so as to reduce the incidence of strain-age cracking in the weldment.
Claims8
An electron beam welding method comprising the steps of:
- placing together articles to define a contact surface interface therebetween, the articles being formed of alloys containing at least one precipitation-strengthening phase;
- directing a first electron beam along the contact surface interface to form a weldment that joins the articles together at the contact surface interface and thereby form a welded component, the precipitation-strengthening phase being dissolved by the first electron beam so as to be substantially absent in the weldment;
- and
- directing a second electron beam at a portion of the weldment behind the first electron beam, the second electron beam being at a sufficient power density and being directed at a distance from the first electron beam so that the portion of the weldment is heated to a stress-relief temperature of the weldment at a rate sufficient to avoid precipitation of the precipitation-strengthening phase.
1 more element
A method of forming a gas turbine engine component by electron beam welding, the method comprising the steps of:
- placing together articles to define a contact surface interface therebetween, the articles being formed of nickel-based superalloys containing at least one precipitation-strengthening phase selected from the group consisting of gamma prime precipitates and gamma double prime precipitates;
- generating an electron beam;
- and
- splitting the electron beam to form first and second split electron beams, the first split electron beam being directed along the contact surface interface to form a weldment that joins the articles together at the contact surface interface and thereby form the component, the precipitation-strengthening phase being dissolved by the first split electron beam so as to be substantially absent in the weldment, the second split electron beam being directed at a portion of the weldment behind the first split electron beam, the second split electron beam being at a sufficient power density and being directed at a distance from the first split electron beam so that the portion of the weldment is heated to a stress-relief temperature of the weldment at a rate sufficient to avoid precipitation of the precipitation-strengthening phase.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.