Single Crystal Turbine Blade Root Repair via MELD

Additive manufacturing (AM) is of high interest across many industries looking to “print” complex geometries in an array of metallic materials. In addition to manufacturing applications, AM technologies are also being used in repair operations of similarly geometrically complex parts. The MELD process is a solid-state AM process that yields fully dense products with near wrought properties, reduced distortion, and significantly faster throughput as post deposition material-processing is not required. In this presentation, the ability of the MELD process to repair single crystal turbine blade roots will be explored. The blade roots, made from a single crystal nickel super-alloy, are repaired via the MELD process after the original damaged material has been removed. The MELD deposited nickel-alloy possess a refined (5-10 um) and equiaxed grain structure. In this work, a review of the deposition process as well as the nterface between the blade root and MELD deposited material will be presented, including microstructure and mechanical properties.