General Electric Company

Barson Composites Corporation

David John Wortman

Robert William Bruce

David Vincent Rigney

Rudolfo Viguie

Bangalore Aswatha Nagaraj

Ramgopal Darolia

Antonio Frank Maricocchi

Jon Conrad Schaeffer

Joseph David Rigney

Irene T Spitsberg

David William Skelly

Curtis Alan Johnson

Brian Thomas Hazel

Jeffrey Allen Conner

Mark Alan Rosenzweig

Boris Alexeevich Movchan

John Douglas Evans, Sr

William Seth Willen

Yuriy E Rudoy

Leonella M Nerodenko

Bhupendra Kumar Gupta

Warren Arthur Nelson

Brett Allen Rohrer Boutwell

Seetha Ramaiah Mannava

Keith Humphries Betscher

William B Connor

Christopher Lee Lagemann

Nripendra Nath Das

Larry W Plemmons

Roger Dale Wustman

William Paul Minnear

Anthony Mark Thompson

Sean Robert Keith

Brian Harvey Pilsner

Richard Arthur Nardi, Jr

Richard William Jendrix

Peter John Linko, Iii

Edward H Goldman

John J Grisik

Norman R Lindblad

Charles Clifford Berger

Jonathan Paul Blank

Joseph A Heaney, Iii

Janet Elizabeth Gaewsky

Patricia A Zomcik

Nicole Marie Polley

Kathleen Diana Brammer

Leonella M Kerodenko

Boris A Movchan

A gas turbine component for use in a gas turbine engine includes a substrate and a non-aluminide protective coating with a platinum-group metal. The platinum-group metal resides in a gamma-prime phase of the underlying material. The platinum-group metal can impart the protective coating with superior corrosion-resistance, while the absence of aluminide in the protective coating facilitates use of the protective coating at high-stress and/or high-fatigue portions of the component. The protective coating optionally includes chromide and can also be combined with aluminide at select portions of the component.

Coatings for gas turbine components

Turbine airfoil components with protective layers and methods therefore. The components are each formed to have a platform, an airfoil extending upwardly from the platform, and a shank extending downwardly from the platform. The shank has an exterior wall and an internal passage, and the airfoil has a cooling flow channel inside the airfoil for flowing a cooling flow therethrough. The component has an interior chromide coating contacting at least a portion of an interior surface of the shank and interdiffused with a base metal thereof, and an exterior chromide coating contacting at least a portion of an exterior surface of the shank and interdiffused with the base metal thereof. The interior and exterior chromide coatings do not have an aluminide coating deposited thereon.

Turbine engine components with environmental protection for interior passages

A coating process and TBC system suitable for protecting the surface of a component subjected to a hostile thermal environment. The TBC system has a first layer with a columnar microstructure, and a second layer on the first layer and with a microstructure characterized by irregular flattened grains. According to one aspect, the first layer is present and the second layer is not present on a first surface portion of the component, and the first and second layers are both present on a second surface portion of the component. According to another aspect, the first and second layers contain the same base ceramic compound.

Thermal barrier coating system and process therefor

An intermetallic composition suitable for use as an environmentally-protective coating on surfaces of components used in hostile thermal environments, including the turbine, combustor and augmentor sections of a gas turbine engine. The coating contains the gamma-prime (NiAl) nickel aluminide intermetallic phase and either the beta (NiAl) nickel aluminide intermetallic phase or the gamma solid solution phase. The coating has an average aluminum content of 14 to 30 atomic percent and an average platinum-group metal content of at least 1 to less than 10 atomic percent, the balance of the coating being nickel, incidental impurities, and optionally hafnium.

Gamma prime phase-containing nickel aluminide coating

An intermetallic composition suitable for use as an environmentally-protective coating on surfaces of components used in hostile thermal environments, including the turbine, combustor and augmentor sections of a gas turbine engine. The coating contains the gamma-prime (NiAl) nickel aluminide intermetallic phase and either the beta (NiAl) nickel aluminide intermetallic phase or the gamma solid solution phase. The coating has an average aluminum content of 14 to 30 atomic percent and an average platinum-group metal content of at least 1 to less than 10 atomic percent, the balance of the coating being nickel, one or more of chromium, silicon, tantalum, and cobalt, optionally one or more of hafnium, yttrium, zirconium, lanthanum, and cerium, and incidental impurities.

A thermal barrier coating, or TBC, and method for forming the TBC. The TBC is formed of a thermal-insulating material that contains yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) alloyed with at least a third oxide. The TBC is formed to also contain elemental carbon, and may potentially contain carbides and/or a carbon-containing gas that forms from the thermal decomposition of carbon. The TBC is characterized by lower density and thermal conductivity, high temperature stability and improved mechanical properties. To exhibit the desired effect, the third oxide is more particularly one that increases the lattice strain energy of the TBC microstructure as a result of having an ion size that is sufficiently different than a zirconium ion.

Thermal barrier coating and process therefor

A thermal barrier coating (TBC) and method for forming the TBC () on a component () characterized by a stabilized microstructure that resists grain growth, sintering and pore coarsening or coalescence during high temperature excursions. The TBC () contains elemental carbon and/or a carbon-containing gas that increase the amount of porosity () initially within the TBC () and form additional fine closed porosity () within the TBC () during subsequent exposures to high temperatures. A first method involves incorporating elemental carbon precipitates by evaporation into the TBC microstructure. A second method is to directly incorporate an insoluble gas, such as a carbon-containing gas, into an as-deposited TBC () and then partially sinter the TBC () to entrap the gas and produce fine stable porosity within the TBC ().

Thermally-stabilized thermal barrier coating

An electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) apparatus for producing a coating material (e.g., a ceramic thermal barrier coating) on an article. The EBPVD apparatus generally includes a coating chamber that is operable at elevated temperatures and subatmospheric pressures. An electron beam gun projects an electron beam into the coating chamber through an aperture in a wall of the chamber and onto a coating material within a coating region defined within the chamber, causing the coating material to melt and evaporate. An article is supported within the coating chamber so that vapors of the coating material deposit on the article. The operation of the EBPVD apparatus is enhanced by the inclusion within the coating chamber of a second chamber that encloses the aperture so as to separate the aperture from the coating region. The second chamber is maintained at a pressure lower than the coating region.

Electron beam physical vapor deposition apparatus

An electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) apparatus and a method for using the apparatus to produce a coating material (e.g., a ceramic thermal barrier coating) on an article. The EBPVD apparatus generally includes a coating chamber that is operable at elevated temperatures and subatmospheric pressures. An electron beam gun projects an electron beam into the coating chamber and onto a coating material within the chamber, causing the coating material to melt and evaporate. An article is supported within the coating chamber so that vapors of the coating material deposit on the article. The operation of the EBPVD apparatus is enhanced by the inclusion or adaptation of one or more mechanical and/or process modifications, including those necessary or beneficial when operating the apparatus at coating pressures above 0.010 mbar.

Method of operating an electron beam physical vapor deposition apparatus

A thermal barrier coating, or TBC ( ), and method for forming the TBC ( ). The TBC ( ) is formed of a thermal-insulating material that contains yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) alloyed with at least a third oxide. The TBC ( ) is formed to also contain elemental carbon, and may potentially contain carbides and/or a carbon-containing gas that forms from the thermal decomposition of carbon. The TBC ( ) is characterized by lower density and thermal conductivity, high temperature stability and improved mechanical properties. To exhibit the desired effect, the third oxide is more particularly one that increases the lattice strain energy of the TBC microstructure as a result of having an ion size that is sufficiently different than a zirconium ion.

Thermal barrier coating on a surface

An improved method for applying a ceramic material, such as a thermal barrier coating to an article. A method for applying a ceramic material as a coating to a substrate article in which the thermal conductivity of the ceramic material is reduced or lowered is provided. The thermal conductivity of a coating applied by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method is dependent upon its distance from the source(s) of material used for the coating. The thermal conductivity of the applied coating is altered by adjusting the position of the article undergoing the PVD process by increasing the distances of the article or workpiece from the ingot or source of ceramic material to provide a coating of lower thermal conductivity. In accordance with the present invention, the article to be coated is positioned at a distance required to achieve at least a 10% reduction in the thermal conductivity of the applied coating.

Physical properties of thermal barrier coatings using electron beam-physical vapor deposition

An electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) apparatus and a method for using the apparatus to produce a coating material (e.g., a ceramic thermal barrier coating) on an article. The EBPVD apparatus generally includes a coating chamber that is operable at elevated temperatures and subatmospheric pressures. An electron beam gun projects an electron beam into the coating chamber and onto a coating material within the chamber, causing the coating material to melt and evaporate. An article is supported within the coating chamber so that vapors of the coating material deposit on the article. The operation of the EBPVD apparatus is enhanced by the inclusion of a crucible that supports the coating material and is configured to be efficiently cooled so as to reduce the rate at which the process temperature increases within the coating chamber.

Electron beam physical vapor deposition apparatus and crucible therefor

An article having a substrate is protected by a thermal barrier coating system. An interfacial layer contacts the upper surface of the substrate. The interfacial layer may comprise a bond coat only, or a bond coat and an overlay coat. The interfacial layer has on its upper surface a preselected, controllable pattern of three-dimensional features, such as grooves in a parallel array or in two angularly offset arrays. The features are formed by an ablation process using an ultraviolet laser such as an excimer laser. A ceramic thermal barrier coating is deposited over the pattern of features on the upper surface of the interfacial layer.

Method for producing an enhanced thermal barrier coating system

A thermal barrier coating system and a method for forming the coating system on a component designed for use in a hostile thermal environment, such as superalloy turbine, combustor and augmentor components of a gas turbine engine. The method is particularly directed to a thermal barrier coating system that includes a thermal insulating ceramic layer and a diffusion aluminide bond coat on which an aluminum oxide scale is grown to protect the underlying surface of the component and to chemically bond the ceramic layer. The bond coat is formed to contain an additive metal of platinum, palladium, rhodium, chromium and/or silicon, and an additive element of yttrium and/or zirconium, with possible additions of hafnium. The bond coat may be formed by codepositing aluminum with the active element, or by depositing the additive metal and active element on the surface of the component, and then aluminizing to form the diffusion aluminide bond coat.

Diffusion aluminide bond coat for a thermal barrier coating system and method therefor

A method for producing a thermal barrier coating system on an article that will be subjected to a hostile environment. The thermal barrier coating system is composed of a metallic bond coat and a ceramic thermal barrier coating having a columnar grain structure. The method generally entails forming the bond coat on the surface of a component, and then grit blasting the bond coat with an abrasive media having a particle size of greater than 80 mesh. The component is then supported within a coating chamber containing at least two ingots of the desired ceramic material. An absolute pressure of greater than 0.014 mbar is established within the chamber containing oxygen and an inert gas. Thereafter, the ceramic ingots are vaporized with an electron beam such that the vapor deposits on the surface of the component to form a layer of the ceramic material on the surface.

Method of forming a thermal barrier coating system

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Hamilton, OH, United States of America

David John Wortman