SBIR/STTR Award attributes
The US Air Force maintains an active fleet of 5,000+ aircraft, with an average age of 28 years in service. The US Military has more than 10,000 aircraft and spends an estimated $4 Billion annually to support these critical weapon systems. One considerable cost is replacement of expensive engine components such as turbine blades that cost $1,000’s per part. Adoption of repair technologies that enable the restoration of worn components by adding material back onto the part to return it to original spec – without sacrificing mechanical properties, is desired. Such repair technologies are much more economical than new make replacement parts, in some cases saving as much as 70%. Wire-based manual welding - including tungsten inert gas (TIG) - is widely used for turbine blades; however, there are many issues with such a manual process, including: Low resolution process compared with thin-walled blades. Risks damaging the part through excessive heat input. Requires significant post-processing to achieve final form. Manual welders aging out, projected shortage of 450,000 by 2022. Conversely, a transition to a proven micro-welding solution technology called Laser Cladding, also known as Directed Energy Deposition (DED) in the Additive Manufacturing (AM) world is needed. Key advantages that make DED more suitable to automation include: Computer-controlled process that is highly repeatable. Computer-controlled motion that ensures extremely high positional precision. Low Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ) that will not damage the blade. Weld is a fraction the size of TIG, requiring less post-processing In other words, DED/Cladding is a fundamentally more predictable, repeatable and precision process that enables the higher yields necessary to support any automation strategy. Furthermore, from a financial standpoint, based on consultation with existing users doing production repair in the gas turbine space, the payback period for a DED/Cladding machine is less than 2 years with an ROI of 187%.
