Method for manufacturing a hybrid component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9764423-B2
Application number	US-201414192967-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2014
Priority date	Feb 28, 2013
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

The invention refers to a method for manufacturing a hybrid component including the following steps of manufacturing a preform as a first part of the hybrid component, then successively building up on that preform a second part of the component from a metallic powder material by means of an additive manufacturing process by scanning with an energy beam, thereby establishing a controlled grain orientation in primary and in secondary direction of at least a part of the second part of the component. The controlled secondary grain orientation is realized by applying a specific scanning pattern of the energy beam, which is aligned to the cross section profile of the component or to the local load conditions for the component.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing a hybrid component, comprising:
manufacturing a preform as a first part of the hybrid component, then
successively building up on that preform a second part of the component from a metallic powder material via an additive manufacturing process by scanning with an energy beam,
establishing a controlled grain orientation in a primary direction and in a secondary direction of at least a part of the second part of the component via the successively building up of the second part of the component on the preform, wherein the controlling of the grain orientation in the secondary direction is performed via alternating parallel and orthogonal scanner paths of the energy beam in subsequent layers as the second part is successively built up on the preform, the parallel scanner paths being parallel to a direction of the component that is to have a smallest value of Young's Modulus and the orthogonal scanner paths are orthogonal to the direction of the component that is to have the smallest value of Young's Modulus; and
wherein the controlled grain orientation in the secondary direction is aligned to a cross section profile of said component or to local load conditions for said component.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the alternating parallel and orthogonal scanner paths of the energy beam in subsequent layers as the second part is successively built up on the preform comprises a first scanner path of the energy beam that is parallel to the direction of the component that is to have the smallest value of Young's Modulus applied to a first layer as the second part of the component is built-up on the preform and a second scanner path of the energy beam that is orthogonal to the direction of the component that is to have the smallest value of Young's Modulus applied a second layer that is positioned on the first layer as the second part of the component is built-up on the preform.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the preform is manufactured by casting, forging, milling or sintering.

4. The method according to claim 3 , comprising:
machining the preform by a combination of two or more of selective laser melting, electron beam melting, laser metal forming and wire EDM.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the preform is manufactured by generative processes comprising at least one of: selective laser melting, electron beam melting, laser metal forming, and wire EDM.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said metallic material is one of a high-temperature Ni-based alloy, Co-based alloy, Fe-based alloy or combinations thereof.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said metallic material contains finely dispersed oxides comprising one of Y 2 O 3 , Al 2 O 3 , ThO 2 , HfO 2 , ZrO 2 .

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said additive manufacturing process for the second part of the component is one of selective laser melting (SLM), selective laser sintering (SLS) or electron beam melting (EBM), the additive manufacturing process comprising:
a) manufacturing or at least pre-machining a preform;
b) generating a three-dimensional model of volumes to be added on the preform followed by a slicing process to calculate cross sections;
c) passing said calculated cross sections to a machine control unit of a machine;
d) providing a metallic powder material;
e) placing the preform in a work chamber such that an interface to a zone to be additively manufactured is parallel to a powder deposition plane of the machine;
f) determining exact positions and orientation of the preform;
g) preparing a powder layer with a regular and uniform thickness on the preform;
h) performing melting of the powder layer by scanning with an energy beam an area corresponding to a cross section of said component according to the three-dimensional model stored in the machine control unit, wherein the energy beam is scanned in a way that the orientation in the secondary direction matches with known main crystallographic directions of the preform and facilitates the establishing of the controlled grain orientation in the primary direction and in the secondary direction;
i) lowering an upper surface of a previously formed cross section by one layer thickness; and
j) repeating steps from g) to i) until reaching a last cross section according to the three-dimensional model to perform the successively building up of the second part of the component on the preform.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein in step a) an existing preform is cut and/or machined along a preferred plane and the following steps for build-up of the second part of the component are done on this pre-machined preform.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein particle size distribution of said powder is adjusted to the layer thickness of said powder layer in order to establish a flowability -required for preparing powder layers with regular and uniform thickness.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the powder particles have a spherical shape and that an exact particle size distribution of the powder is obtained by sieving and/or winnowing and/or air separation.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said powder is provided by one of: gas atomization, water atomization, a plasma-rotating-electrode process, and mechanical milling.

13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein said additive manufacturing process uses a suspension.

Assignees

• Alstom Technology Ltd
• Ansaldo Energia Ip Uk Ltd

Inventors

• Hoebel Matthias
• Etter Thomas
• Konter Maxim
• Schurb Julius

Classifications

• B22F7/06

  of composite workpieces or articles from parts, e.g. to form tipped tools {(B22F7/002 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B22F7/00

  Manufacture of composite layers, workpieces, or articles, comprising metallic powder, by sintering the powder, with or without compacting {wherein at least one part is obtained by sintering or compression (application of coating layers by use of metal powders, see C23C)} · CPC title

• B29C64/393

  for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes · CPC title

• B23P6/007

  using only additive methods, e.g. build-up welding · CPC title

• B22F3/105 Primary

  by using electric current {other than for infrared radiant energy}, laser radiation or plasma (B22F3/11 takes precedence){; by ultrasonic bonding (B22F3/115 takes precedence)} · CPC title