Open Access

Benjamin Merz, Tim Knobloch, Gunther Mohr, Kai Hilgenberg

• One of the main advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) is the possibility to manufacture complex near-net-shape components. Therefore, the PBF-LB/M process is becoming increasingly important for the manufacturing and repair of gas turbine blades. Despite the great freedom in design, there are also limitations to the process. Manufacturing overhangs or bridging voids are some of the main challenges. In the conventional PBF-LB/M process, overhangs with angles up to 45° can be manufactured. However, gas turbine blades feature voids for cooling, which have to be bridged when using PBF-LB/M. In this work, different concepts for bridging voids are developed for future application in gas turbine blade repair. For this purpose, a test geometry is derived from the tip area of a gas turbine blade as a reference. By changing the initial geometry of the reference body, different designs for bridging voids are developed based on the PBF-LB/MOne of the main advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) is the possibility to manufacture complex near-net-shape components. Therefore, the PBF-LB/M process is becoming increasingly important for the manufacturing and repair of gas turbine blades. Despite the great freedom in design, there are also limitations to the process. Manufacturing overhangs or bridging voids are some of the main challenges. In the conventional PBF-LB/M process, overhangs with angles up to 45° can be manufactured. However, gas turbine blades feature voids for cooling, which have to be bridged when using PBF-LB/M. In this work, different concepts for bridging voids are developed for future application in gas turbine blade repair. For this purpose, a test geometry is derived from the tip area of a gas turbine blade as a reference. By changing the initial geometry of the reference body, different designs for bridging voids are developed based on the PBF-LB/M requirements. Subsequently, these distinct designs are manufactured by PBF-LB/M. The different approaches are compared with respect to their volume increase. In addition, the specimens are visually inspected for warpage, shrinkage and imperfections by overheating. Out of the seven concepts developed, three concepts can be recommended for gas turbine blade repair based on low volume increase, distortion and shrinkage.…