General Electric Company

Jinjie Shi

Richard Roy Worthing, Jr

Joseph Edward Hampshire

William Thomas Carter

David Charles Bogdan, Jr

Hongqing Sun

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

Kevin George Harding

Christopher Edward Wolfe

Marshall Gordon Jones

Victor Petrovich Ostroverkhov

Xiaolei Shi

Jason Harris Karp

Justin John Gambone, Jr

Glen Charles Fedyk

Pinghai Yang

Douglas Frank Hofmann

Kirk Douglas Gallier

Michael Evans Graham

Robert Proctor

Neelesh Nandkumar Sarawate

Changjie Sun

Andres Jose Garcia-Crespo

Ananda Barua

Larry Steven Rosenzweig

Sathyanarayanan Raghavan

James William Sears

Lang Yuan

Dennis Paul Dry

Andrew Ezekiel Wessman

Jessica Godin Karp

Christopher James Hayden

Jason Paul Hoppa

Stephen Gerard Schadewald

Scott Mitchel Lowe

Matthew Scott Langford

Jolene Ranae Grethel

Yun Zhu

Jr Richard Roy Worthing

Richard Roy Worthing

Jr Harry Kirk Mathews

David Charles Bogdan Jr

Justin John Gambone Jr

A tooling assembly for mounting a plurality of components, such as compressor blades, in a powder bed additive manufacturing machine to facilitate a repair process is provided. The tooling assembly includes component fixtures configured for receiving each of the compressor blades, a mounting plate for receiving the component fixtures, and a complementary fixture defining a plurality of voids within which the compressor blades are received when the complementary fixture is mounted to the mounting plate such that less powder is required to fill the powder bed.

Tooling assembly for decreasing powder usage in a powder bed additive manufacturing process

A method for additively printing extension segments on workpieces using an additive manufacturing machine includes controlling, with a computing system, an operation of a print head of the machine such that a region of interest of a build plate of the machine is scanned with an electromagnetic radiation beam. Additionally, the method includes receiving, with the computing system, data associated with reflections of the beam off of the build plate as the region interest is scanned. Furthermore, the method includes receiving, with the computing system, data associated with a location of the beam relative to the build plate. Moreover, the method includes determining, with the computing system, a location of a workpiece interface based on the received data. In addition, the method includes controlling, with the computing system, the operation of the print head such that an extension segment is additively printed on the determined workpiece interface.

System and method for additively printing extension segments on workpieces

A build plate-clamping assembly may include a work station having a build plate-receiving surface and a lock-pin extending from the build plate-receiving surface of the work station. The lock-pin may include a hollow pin body, a piston disposed within the hollow pin body, with the piston axially movable from a retracted position to an actuated position, and a plurality of detents, with the plurality of detents radially extensible through respective ones of a plurality of detent-apertures in the hollow pin body responsive to the piston having been axially moved to the actuated position. A methods of working on workpieces may include lockingly engaging a build plate at a first work station, performing a first work-step, releasing the build plate from the first work station, lockingly engaging the build plate at a second work station, and performing a second work-step. An additive manufacturing system may include a vision system with a first build plate-receiving surface and an additive manufacturing machine with a second build plate-receiving surface.

Build plate clamping-assembly and additive manufacturing systems and methods of additively printing on workpieces

A method of additively printing an extension segment on a workpiece includes pretreating a workpiece-interface of the workpiece using an energy beam emitted from an energy beam source of an additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface having received a pretreatment, with the pretreatment remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface. The method further includes additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using an energy beam emitted from the energy beam source of the additive manufacturing machine. The aberrant feature includes one or more aberrant regions of the workpiece-interface having been determined from a digital representation of the workpiece-interface captured by a vision system. The pretreatment includes heat-conditioning at least a portion of the workpiece-interface including the one or more aberrant regions of the workpiece-interface.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods of pretreating and additively printing on workpieces

A tooling assembly and method of aligning a plurality of components for a repair process in an additive manufacturing machine includes positioning the plurality of components such that a repair surface of each of the plurality of components contacts an alignment plate, e.g., under the force of gravity or using biasing members. The method further includes surrounding the alignment plate with containment walls to define a reservoir around the plurality of components and dispensing a fill material, such as wax or a potting material, into the reservoir which is configured for fixing a relative position of the plurality of components when the fill material is solidified.

Tooling assembly and method for aligning components for a powder bed additive manufacturing repair process

Additive manufacturing systems, methods, and computer readable media may be configured to perform a calibration. Calibrating an additive manufacturing system may include comparing a digital representation of one or more calibration marks to a calibration-CAD model that includes one or more model calibration marks, and applying a calibration adjustment to one or more CAD models based at least in part on the comparison. The digital representation of the one or more calibration marks may have been obtained using a vision system, and the one or more calibration marks may have been printed on a calibration surface according to the calibration-CAD model using an additive manufacturing machine. The calibration adjustment may be configured to align the one or more CAD models with one or more coordinates of the additive manufacturing system.

Additive manufacturing systems and methods of calibrating for additively printing on workpieces

A tooling assembly for mounting a plurality of components, such as compressor blades, in a powder bed additive manufacturing machine to facilitate a repair process is provided. The tooling assembly includes component fixtures configured for receiving each of the compressor blades, a mounting plate for receiving the component fixtures, and a magnet assembly operably coupling the component fixtures to the mounting plate in a desired position and orientation to facilitate an improved printing process.

Tooling assembly for magnetically aligning components in an additive manufacturing machine

An additive manufacturing machine includes a build platform being movable along a build direction and a powder supply assembly for dispensing additive powder above a build plane. A recoating assembly is used for spreading the additive powder into a build layer on the powder bed. The recoating assembly includes a support beam that slidably supports a recoater blade and moves along a recoater direction over the powder bed. A blade positioning mechanism adjusts the vertical position of the recoater blade in response to measurements from a sensing device which measures a tip clearance between the recoater blade and the build plane. The tip clearance may be measured along the length of the recoater blade while stationary and while moving along the recoater direction to obtain a smooth and level layer of additive powder.

Recoating assembly for an additive manufacturing machine

An additive manufacturing machine for repairing a component includes a build platform that supports the component and a powder dispensing assembly for selectively depositing additive powder over the build platform. A powder seal assembly includes a powder support plate positioned above the build platform and defining an aperture for receiving the component without contacting the component. A clamping mechanism is movable relative to the powder support plate and defines a void for receiving a resilient sealing element around the aperture. An actuating mechanism, such as bolts or a linear actuator, moves the clamping mechanism toward the powder support plate to deform the resilient sealing element until the resilient sealing element contacts and forms a seal with the component.

Powder seal assembly for decreasing powder usage in a powder bed additive manufacturing process

An additive manufacturing machine for repairing a component includes a build platform that supports the component and a powder dispensing assembly for selectively depositing additive powder over the build platform. A powder seal assembly includes a powder support plate positioned above the build platform and defining an aperture for receiving the component without contacting the component. An inflatable sealing element is operably coupled to the powder support plate around the aperture and is inflated to contact and seal against the component, thereby forming a support surface above the build platform upon which additive powder may be deposited.

Methods of additively printing an extension segment on a workpiece may include pretreating a workpiece-interface of a workpiece using an energy beam from an additive manufacturing machine, providing a pretreated workpiece-interface having received a pretreatment, with the pretreatment remediating an aberrant feature of the workpiece and/or the workpiece-interface. Such methods may additionally include additively printing an extension segment on the pretreated workpiece-interface using the energy beam from the additive manufacturing machine. Exemplary additive manufacturing system for printing an extension segment on a workpiece may include a controller operably coupled to a vision system and an additive manufacturing machine.

A seal assembly to seal a gas turbine hot gas path flow at an interface of a combustor liner and a downstream component, such as a stage one turbine nozzle, in a gas turbine. The seal assembly including a piston ring seal housing, defining a cavity, and a piston ring disposed within the cavity. The piston ring disposed circumferentially about the combustor liner. The piston ring is responsive to a regulated pressure to secure sealing engagement of the piston ring and outer surface of the combustor liner. The seal assembly includes at least one of one or more sectional through-slots, bumps or channel features to provide for a flow therethrough of a high-pressure (P) bypass airflow exiting a compressor to the cavity. The high-pressure (P) bypass airflow exerting a radial force on the piston ring.

Pressure regulated piston seal for a gas turbine combustor liner

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Mason, OH, United States of America

Jinjie Shi