General Electric Company

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

X-spine Systems, Inc.

Seetha Ramaiah Mannava

Todd Jay Rockstroh

Bangalore Aswatha Nagaraj

David Louis Kirschman

Paul J Monson

Robert E Baeumel

Curtis Alan Johnson

Robert William Bruce

David John Wortman

Henry August Scarton

Bhupendra Kumar Gupta

Warren Arthur Nelson

David William Skelly

David Vincent Rigney

John F McDonald

Rudolfo Viguie

Roger Owen Barbe

Ian Francis Prentice

Brian Michael Davis

Ui Won Suh

Farzin Homayoun Azad

William D Cowie

Thomas Froats Broderick

Mark Lloyd Miller

James Douglas Risbeck

Ralph M Somers

Ernest B Cooper, Jr

James G Kelley

Philemon Kennard Wright, Iii

Robert David McClain

Joseph W Erkes

William Woodrow Shepherd

Harry J Heckler

John N Minnich

Larry G Jacobs

Vijay K Vasudevan

An integrated laser shock peening coating includes film or a tape having an ablative medium layer spaced apart from a clear containment layer and a stationary clear liquid confining medium therebetween wherein the clear transparent to a laser beam used for laser shock peening. Two examples of the clear liquid confining medium are water and a mixture of water and agar without flowing a confinement curtain of fluid over the surface upon which the laser beam is firing. The intergrated laser shock peening coating may be a tape with an adesive layer being disposed on a first side ablative medium layer. A method of laser shock peening includes coating a substrate of an article with the intergrated laser shock peening coating and firing a laser beam on the coated substrate with sufficient power to form a region having deep compressive residual stresses extending into the substrate.

Laser shock peening coating with entrapped confinement medium

A gas turbine engine blade is laser shock peened by laser shock peening a thin airfoil of the blade, forming a laser shock induced twist in the airfoil, and shot peening a portion of the airfoil to counter the laser shock induced twist in the airfoil. The shot peening may be performed before or after the laser shock peening. The shot peening may be applied over a laser shock peened surface formed by the laser shock peening. The shot peening may be performed asymmetrically on asymmetrically shot peened pressure and suction side areas of pressure and suction sides, respectively, of the airfoil. A shot peened patch near a blade tip may be formed on one of pressure and suction sides of the airfoil wherein the airfoil extends radially outwardly from a blade platform to the blade tip of the blade.

Countering laser shock peening induced airfoil twist using shot peening

A method for laser shock peening a gas turbine engine blade includes laser shock peening a thin airfoil of the blade, forming a laser shock induced twist in the airfoil, and altering a root of the blade to counter the laser shock induced twist in the airfoil. The altering may be done after the laser shock peening. The altering may be done before the laser shock peening during casting or forging of the blade or during a machining or broaching procedure which cuts a shape of the root. One embodiment of the altering includes forming the root with an altered root centerline having an altered centerline angle with respect to a predetermined root centerline designed for a non-laser shock peened airfoil of the blade.

Countering laser shock peening induced blade twist

A method for laser shock peening an article including laser shock peening a first area with at least one high fluence laser beam and laser shock peening a border area between the first area and a non-laser shock peened area of the article with at least one first low fluence laser beam. The border area may be laser shock peened with a second low fluence laser beam or more low fluence laser beams wherein the second low fluence laser beam and others have a lower fluence than the first low fluence laser beam. The border area may be laser shock peened with progressively lower fluence laser beams starting with the one first fluence laser beam wherein the progressively lower fluence laser beams are in order of greatest fluence to least fluence in a direction outwardly from the first area through the border area to the non-laser shock peened area.

Lower fluence boundary laser shock peening

A real time method for quality control testing of a laser shock peening process of production workpieces by analysis of natural frequency shifts during the laser shock peening process. One particular embodiment includes laser shock peening surface of the production workpiece by firing a plurality of laser beam pulses on the surface and forming a plurality of corresponding plasmas, each one of the plasmas pulses having a duration in which the plasma causes a region having deep compressive residual stresses to form beneath the surface, measuring at least one natural frequency of the workpiece for each of the laser beam pulses, calculating natural frequency shifts from a baseline natural frequency for the measured natural frequencies for at least a portion of the laser beam pulses, and using the natural frequency shifts for accepting or rejecting the workpiece with respect to pass or fail criteria.

Real time laser shock peening quality assurance by natural frequency analysis

An ablative tape is applied onto a substrate surface. The ablative tape comprises an ablative medium comprising a polymer and dispersed metallic component. The tape is then irradiated to ablate the ablative medium. An article comprises a substrate and the ablative tape applied to the substrate.

Laser shock peening tape, method and article

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 method for counteracting distortion of the airfoil caused by laser shock peening a gas turbine engine compressor metallic airfoil along its leading and/or trailing edge to form laser shock peened surfaces extending radially along at least a portion of the edges with a region having deep compressive residual stresses imparted by laser shock peening (LSP) extending into the airfoil from the laser shock peened surfaces.

Distortion control for laser shock peened gas turbine engine compressor

Enhanced thermal barrier coating system

A method for making a gas turbine engine component includes the steps of: providing an unfinished gas turbine engine component; directing a laser beam on a selected surface portion of the engine component to prepare the selected surface portion before at least one of a subsequent coating and bonding step; and depositing at least one layer of an abradable material, a subassembly of the component or a thermal barrier coating on the selected surface portion.

Method for making a gas turbine engine component

A laser apparatus is disclosed which is capable of protecting the laser slab or rod crystal within the laser from damage due to overheating when the laser malfunctions in a manner such that laser output ceases while optical pumping of the laser crystal continues. The laser apparatus includes a laser crystal situated within a laser cavity. The apparatus also includes an excitation lamp for pumping the crystal to generate a laser beam to project along a desired main path. A first sensor senses the cessation of the projection of the laser beam along the desired main path and a second sensor senses the continuing excitation of the excitation lamp. The apparatus further includes a extinguishing circuit for extinguishing the excitation lamp a predetermined amount of time after the cessation of the laser beam such that damage to the laser apparatus due to overheating is avoided.

Laser apparatus including crystal protection circuitry and method of

An apparatus for performing laser-assisted deposition of material on a target surface includes a reaction chamber enclosure having a window therein. The reaction chamber is partially evacuated, and a reactive gas is introduced into the reaction chamber enclosure. A laser directs a laser beam into the interior of the reaction chamber enclosure through the window, and the laser beam causes the reactive gas to react to produce an ionized reaction product gas. Optionally, a catalyst is provided within the reaction chamber enclosure to catalyze this reaction. The ionized gaseous reaction product flows from the interior of the reaction chamber enclosure toward a target surface through a nozzle opening in a wall of the reaction chamber enclosure. A voltage is applied between an electrode in the interior of the reaction chamber enclosure and the target surface to accelerate the ionized reaction product out the nozzle and toward the target surface. The ambient atmosphere in the region of the target surface is controlled by a shroud or an environmental control chamber, to assist in the deposition of the ionized reaction product on the target surface. A further reactive gas may be introduced into the vicinity of the target surface, for deposition of compounds onto the target surface through reaction with the ionized reaction product.

Laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition

A method for making a gas turbine engine component includes the steps of: providing an unfinished gas turbine engine component; and selectively patterning a selected surface portion of the engine component by focusing a laser beam on the selected surface portion to improve lubricant distribution between the patterned surface of the engine component and a surface of another engine component in contact with the patterned surface during engine operation.

Method for making a gas turbine engine component with a textured surface

A periodic structure such as a diffraction grating is disposed on the surface of an object from which acoustic emissions are to be detected. A plane monochromatic light beam is incident on the periodic structure and forms a number of Bragg diffraction orders at predetermined angles. A detector positioned to intercept one of the diffraction orders receives light whose frequency has been Doppler shifted by surface motion on the object. A reference beam, also incident on the detector heterodynes with the Doppler-shifted beam so that the Doppler component can be recovered. In one embodiment, the reference beam is also incident on the surface and itself produces Bragg diffraction orders. The geometry produces up Doppler in the Bragg diffraction orders from one beam and down Doppler from the Bragg diffraction orders from the other beam and selected Bragg diffraction orders from both beams are heterodyned in the detector.

Acoustic emission analyzer

Growing community of inventors

Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Seetha Ramaiah Mannava