Research on Laser Additive and Milling Subtractive Composite Remanufacturing Process of Compressor Blade

• Main Authors: Yanhua Zhao, Jie Sun, Zhongqing Jia, Wei Cheng, Jiaming Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
• Series: Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing
• Subjects: laser additive manufacturing; milling; remanufacture; reverse engineering
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2504-4494/2/4/73

As an important energy conversion mechanism, centrifugal compressors play an important role in the national economy. The blade is one of the most critical components of the compressor. Damaged blades contain extremely high added value for remanufacturing. Thus, remanufacturing research on damaged and retired impeller/blade is getting more and more attention. Laser additive and milling subtractive composite remanufacturing technology is an effective means to achieve metal parts remanufacturing. In this paper, an advanced methodology for the remanufacturing of complex geometry and expensive components via reverse engineering, free-form surface modeling, laser additive repaired and machining is presented. The approach involves the integration of 3D non-contact digitization to obtain the point cloud data of damaged parts, adaptive free-form surface reconstruction to get the digital model of damage location, and laser additive manufacturing process containing slicing and path planning and subsequent multi-axis milling operation. The methodology has been successfully implemented on thin-curved centrifugal compressor blades. The results have shown that the composite remanufacturing method is an effective solution to realize the remanufacturing of damaged blades, and can be applied to the remanufacturing of other complicated parts.