Laser drilling methods of shallow-angled holes
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsAmr Elfizy, Ghislain Hardy, Sylvain Cournoyer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for drilling a shallow-angled hole through a thermal barrier coated component includes a step of applying a pulse laser beam to drill a section of the hole substantially within a thermal barrier coating of the component in a direction substantially perpendicular to a top surface of the component. A further step is conducted to apply the pulse laser beam to further drill through a base metal of the component to complete the formation of the hole extending through the component.
Claims12
A method for providing a hole through a metal component having a base metal and a thermal barrier coating applied to the base metal to form a top surface of the component, the method comprising:
- a) applying a pulse laser beam to the top surface of the component perpendicular with respect to the top surface to form a section of the hole substantially penetrating only the thermal barrier coating and leaving the base metal substantially intact, the section of the hole located within a boundary of a final perimeter of the hole;
- and then
- b) changing an orientation of the pulse laser beam to an angle of 20 degrees or less with respect to the top surface;
- and then
- c) applying the pulse laser beam with the changed orientation through the section of the hole partially formed in step (a) to drill through the thermal barrier coating remaining within the boundary of the final perimeter of the hole and through the base metal to provide the final perimeter of the hole, the final perimeter of the hole defining opposed acute and obtuse angles of intersection with the top surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.