Remanufacturing of nickel-based aero-engine components using metal additive manufacturing technology

Abstract

Inconel 718 is one of the most widely used alloys in metal additive manufacturing because of its wide range of applications in aerospace, gas turbines and other structural applications in high temperature range. These high value components may encounter failure or damage within the intended life cycle due to defects introduced during part processing or service conditions. Repairing such components with traditional techniques introduces high residual stresses and microstructural inhomogeneity. Therefore, additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have been used for repairing such high value components. Directed energy deposition (DED) technique has been widely used for repair purposes in aerospace component due to its ability to control microstructure, mechanical properties and maintaining high accuracy. The observations made while working with DED on repairing of aerospace components was analyzed to identify the challenges encountered during the process. Several issues such as the presence of micro-pores near the edges in the deposited component and variation in the microstructure with increase in the deposition height were observed. Therefore, the study was focused to present the role of DED process in the repair of metallic aerospace components and identifying the challenges encountered from the geometrical and metallurgical aspect of the component. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.