General Electric Company

Ning Zhou

Lang Yuan

William Thomas Carter

Marshall Gordon Jones

Steven Jude Duclos

Richard DiDomizio

Andrew Joseph Detor

Ser Nam Lim

Timothy Hanlon

Chen Shen

Richard Didomizio

Joao Vitor Baldini Soares

A method of method of forming or repairing a superalloy article having a columnar or equiaxed or directionally solidified or amorphous or single crystal microstructure includes emitting a plurality of laser beams from selected fibers of a diode laser fiber array corresponding to a pattern of a layer of the article onto a powder bed of the superalloy to form a melt pool; and controlling a temperature gradient and a solidification velocity of the melt pool to form the columnar or single crystal microstructure.

Control of solidification in laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing using a diode laser fiber array

An additive manufacturing system includes a powder bed and at least one energy source configured to produce at least one energy beam for forming a build layer of a component from the powder bed. The additive manufacturing system further includes a computing device coupled to the at least one energy source. The computing device includes a processor and a memory device. The memory device includes instructions configured to cause the computing device to execute a manufacturing plan for manufacturing the component, receive component thermal data corresponding to at least a portion of the component during manufacturing of the component, and control the at least one energy beam in response to receiving the component thermal data to produce a predetermined microstructure within the portion of the component.

Systems and methods for controlling microstructure of additively manufactured components

A method for preparing an improved article including a nickel-based superalloy is presented. The method includes heat-treating a workpiece including a nickel-based superalloy at a temperature above the gamma-prime solvus temperature of the nickel-based superalloy and cooling the heat-treated workpiece with a cooling rate less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit/minute from the temperature above the gamma-prime solvus temperature of the nickel-based superalloy so as to obtain a cooled workpiece. The cooled workpiece includes a coprecipitate of a gamma-prime phase and a gamma-double-prime phase, wherein the gamma-prime phase of the coprecipitate has an average particle size less than 250 nanometers. An article having a minimum dimension greater than 6 inches is also presented. The article includes a material having a coprecipitate of a gamma-prime phase and a gamma-double-prime phase, wherein the gamma-prime phase of the coprecipitate has an average particle size less than 250 nanometers.

Methods for preparing superalloy articles and related articles

A method for preparing an article including a nickel-based superalloy is presented. The method includes heat-treating a workpiece including a nickel-based superalloy at a temperature above a gamma-prime solvus temperature of the nickel-based superalloy and cooling the heat-treated workpiece with a cooling rate less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit/minute from the temperature above the gamma-prime solvus temperature of the nickel-based superalloy so as to obtain a cooled workpiece. The cooled workpiece includes a gamma-prime precipitate phase having an average particle size less than 250 nanometers at a concentration of at least 10 percent by volume, and is substantially free of a gamma-double-prime phase. An article having a minimum dimension greater than 6 inches is also presented. The article includes a material that has a gamma-prime precipitate phase having an average particle size less than 250 nanometers, and is substantially free of a gamma-double-prime phase.

A method for detecting missing tooth in mining shovel, implemented using a processing device, includes receiving a pair of image frames from a camera disposed on a rope mine shovel configured to carry a mining load. A tooth line region corresponding to the pair of image frames is detected to generate a pair of tooth line regions based on a shovel template set. A difference image is determined based on the pair of image frames and the pair of tooth line regions. Further, a response map representative of possible tooth positions is determined based on the difference image using a tooth template matching technique. A tooth line is selected among a plurality of candidate tooth lines based on the response map. Further, a tooth condition is determined based on the tooth line and the difference image. The tooth condition is notified to an operator of the rope mine shovel.

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Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

Ning Zhou