Tailoring alloy 718 laser directed energy deposition process strategies for repair applications

Laser-based directed energy deposition (LDED) for repair and sustainment has become a viable alternative to replace or complement traditional repair applications. Many a time, thin-walled structures cannot be repaired because of the heat intensive repair operations, which lead to excessive distortion or degradation of the parent material. To overcome repair challenges related to thin-walled structures, a low-energy process strategy with powder feedstock has been developed to reduce the heat-affected zone, reduce distortion, and produce a microstructure yielding higher microhardness values. On the other side of the repair spectrum, much larger surfaces may also need attention. In this case, a high-deposition rate process strategy may be more suitable to reduce lead-time and cost. To accommodate larger repairs, a high-deposition rate process strategy using wire feedstock has been developed. The high-deposition rate strategy is shown to be more cost-effective provided the target application and part geometry can accommodate the high-energy process. Validating these LDED repair strategies has been accomplished by analyzing the resulting distortion, presence of flaws or defects, microhardness, microstructure, and tensile properties. The process control offered by LDED through the ability to tailor the process-structure-property relationships of a material system depending on component geometry and application has put a new tool in place addressing many concerns related to traditional arc-based repair processes.