General Electric and Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) have begun testing CF34 engine blades that were manufactured or repaired using micro spark coating (MSC), a newly available alternative to conventional welding, writes Brendan Sobie.
IHI, which co-developed MSC with Mitsubishi Electric, says bench testing of CF34-8 and CF34-10 blades began earlier this month and will end in June at a GE facility in Belgium. The company says bench testing of vanes will begin next month and be completed in July.
GE and IHI will later determine if MSC technology is ready to be applied to production CF34 components, including low-pressure turbine blades supplied by IHI.
"This is just a test. When we get good results our engineers and GE engineers will approve it," says an IHI official.
IHI also hopes to sell the technology to maintenance providers and airlines with maintenance divisions that repair CF34 blades.
The company believes MSC will allow mechanics to repair blades that now have to be discarded because only with MSC can metals be built up without any deformations of the blade. MSC is applied using a small electrode that generates a micro-pulse electric discharge which melts the surface of the treated part. Melted powder falls onto the pool of melted metal at the surface, resulting in a strong bond between the part and the coating.
The Japan Defence Agency last year bench-tested some undisclosed engines that were treated with MSC. IHI says it has since improved the technology, in particular its wear resistance, and JDA plans another round of tests later this year. The CF34 is the first civil certification to be tested.
Source: Flight International
