Repair & maintenance by Metal Additive Manufacturing process on Titanium alloy parts

Abstract

Abstract The CRO2 project* deals with both the aircrafts’ parts repair & maintenance and the Additive Manufacturing by metal powder Directed Energy Deposition **. Repairing parts in the aerospace industry is a potential application for additive manufacturing technologies. It’s thus possible to reduce operating losses and to avoid waste of costly and strategic raw materials. CRO2 proposes a pre-industrial development to rebuild lost shapes and functions of Ti64 alloys structures as example in air bled piping. Laser Metal Deposition (DED) process was used for Ti64 parts manufacturing. Tensile and fatigue tests were performed on several samples to characterize the AM material. The mechanical properties of the tested samples are comparable to those of the laminate Ti64 and their microstructure is typical of additive manufacturing. The reliability of the proposed technique, compared to welding repairs’ process, has been successfully demonstrated using aircraft environmental qualification tests at high temperature and pressure carried out on thin representative pipings. (*) CRO2: Cost Repair Overhaul Optimization (**) DED AM: Directed Energy Deposition Additive Manufacturing