laser material processing
Laser Additive Manufacturing
Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) and Selective Laser
Melting (SLM) in Turbo-Engine Applications
Focusing on laser additive manufac-
turing techniques for turbo-engine appli-
cations, two major European and German
funded projects, FANTASIA and TurPro,
are presented. The aim of both projects is
to contribute to winning global leader-
ship of European turbo-engine manufac-
turers by developing new flexible and
near-net-shape additive manufacturing
chains and repair techniques based on La-
ser Metal Deposition (LMD), as seen in
Figure 1 and Selective Laser Melting
(SLM). This article reviews the status quo
of FANTASIA and TurPro.
Laser Additive Manufacturing
(LAM)
LMD and SLM (Fig. 2) are near-net-shape
additive processes using serial powder
materials without any additives like bind-
ers. The common feature of all additive
manufacturing processes is the provision of
the geometrical data for the fabrication of
2 cm
Figure 1: Laser additive manufacturing
offers a large variety of applications e.g.
repairing disk labyrinth seals using LMD
58 LTJ April 2010  No. 2
The Authors
andres gasser
Andres Gasser studied
Applied Physics at the
Technical University of
Darmstadt, Germany,
where he received his diploma degree in
1985. Since then he has been working in the
field of surface treatment at the Fraunhofer
ILT. He received his PhD Thesis in Mechanical
Engineering in 1993. He has led many na-
tional and international projects in the field
of optics, process development and system
engineering and has implemented several
LMD machines at companies like Braun
GmbH, Stork Gears&Services and Rolls-
Royce Germany. Actually he is the speaker
of the LMD group at the ILT, in charge of the
LMD system components and project leader
of the Innovation Cluster TurPro at the ILT.

Dr.-Ing. Andres Gasser
Fraunhofer-Institut für Lasertechnik
Steinbachstr. 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)241 8906-209
Fax: +49 (0)241 8906-121
E-mail: andres.gasser@ilt.fraunhofer.de
Website: www.ilt.fraunhofer.de
the parts. Therefore the starting point is a
3-­dimensional CAD model, which is subdi-
vided into layers of a defined thickness.
The actual part is fabricated by a repeat-
ing process of applying new material layers
and transferring the geometrical informa-
tion of each layer into the material using a
laser beam. The most important difference
between LMD and SLM is the provision of the
powder material. For LMD the powder mate-
rial is locally supplied by a powder feeding
nozzle (coaxial or off-axial), while for SLM the
part is fabricated in a “powder bed”. In both
gerhard Backes
Dipl.-Ing. Gerhard Backes is working at the
Chair for Laser Technology LLT at RWTH
Aachen University. He is in charge of the de-
velopment of nozzles systems for LMD and
the repair work in the aero-engine area.
E-mail: gerhard.backes@ilt.fraunhofer.de
INGOMAR KELBASSA
Dr.-Ing. Ingomar Kelbassa is vice & academic
director at the LLT and head of the group La-
ser Additive Manufacturing.
E-mail: ingomar.kelbassa@ilt.fraunhofer.de
ANDREAS WEISHEIT
Dr.-Ing. Andreas Weisheit is the speaker of
the group Heat Treatment and Cladding at
the ILT.
E-mail: andreas.weisheit@ilt.fraunhofer.de
KONRAD WISSENBACH
Dr. rer. nat. Konrad Wissenbach is the head
of the group Additive Manufacturing and
Functional Layers at the ILT and is also the
coordinator and project leader of the FAN-
TASIA project.
E-mail: konrad.wissenbach@ilt.fraunhofer.de
processes the powder is completely melted
by the laser beam, resulting in fully dense lay-
ers without post processing (e. g. infiltration
for Selective Laser Sintering). This enables
mechanical properties which are equal or
even better to those of rolled metal sheet.
The precision and geometrical freedom of
SLM is higher in comparison to LMD, while
the possibility to build-up material layers di-
rectly on 3D-surfaces and the processability
of very large parts are the main advantages
of LMD and enable the use of LMD for repair
and wear/corrosion protection applications.
© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
 laser material processing

10 mm

Figure 3: Original boss (left) and boss

Figure 2: Schemes of Selective Laser Melting SLM (a) and Laser Metal Deposition manufactured by SLM (right). Material:
LMD (b). Inconel 718.

LAM shows the following advantages: tial for LAM allowing more complex geom- powder providers together with seven uni-
   Requires no tooling or moulds, making etries or advanced product functionality versities and research institutes have joined
them the processes of choice for rapid and allowing entirely new product designs, their multidisciplinary expertise in materials
manufacturing of customised individual currently not possible to manufacture using science, laser manufacturing technique and
and low-to-medium volume compo- conventional processes, such as casting and sensor systems, design, manufacturing and
nents. machining. LMD and SLM show huge poten- repair of aero engine parts and resources in
   Comprises highly flexible processes. tials in customization, flexibility, miniaturiza- the FANTASIA project.
   Makes efficient use of (valuable) mate- tion, cycle-time reduction and improvement FANTASIA is dedicated to the develop-
rial resources, creating high-value com- of mechanical performance of high-value ment of LMD and SLM processes as well as
ponents in a cost-effective manner (for products in nearly all industrial sectors. the development of process chains for com-
instance, using conventional techniques plex aero-engine components. In particular,
such as milling 90–95% of high perfor- the following potential has been identified:
Project FANTASIA
mance material is machined away to man- 1. New design possibilities using the nearly
ufacture integral turbine components). Overview: The project FANTASIA (Flexible unlimited geometrical freedom of SLM.
   Can produce small geometrical features, and near-net-shape generative manufactur- 2. Decrease time efforts in the whole life
currently 100–200 μm. ing chains and repair techniques for complex cycle of a part in the design and/or rede-
Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and Laser shaped aero engine parts) was launched in sign phase, subsequent manufacturing
Metal Deposition (LMD) show high poten- June 2006. The 6.5 Million € project is coor- and the repair phase.
dinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser 3. Savings in production and raw material
Technology ILT and receives funding from costs due to reduced time effort and raw
the European Commission. It has ambitious material quantity to be used in additive
the institute objectives: a decrease of at least 40 % in re- manufacturing.
pair costs and a 40 % reduction in the repair 4. Processability of conventional nickel and
Fraunhofer Institute for Laser
turnaround time for parts. Some compo- titanium base alloys as well as upcoming
Technology
nents which previously had to be discarded advanced materials like TiAl.
Aachen, Germany
due to the lack of a suitable repair technique This minimizes the cost and lead time due to
can now be repaired with the help of LMD. reduced market response times from manu-
With a total of 300 employees and more
Three major aero engine and compo- facturing to design and design to manufac-
than 10,000  m² of usable floor space
nent manufacturers (OEMs), three repair turing.
the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Tech-
excellence centers as end users, five indus- The technologies developed lead to cost
nology is world-wide one of the most
trial partners as systems engineering and reduction for design or re-design, manufac-
important development and contract
research institutes of its specific field.
The activities cover a wide range of ar-
eas such as the development of new
laser beam sources and components,
the use of modern laser measurement
and testing technology and laser-sup-
ported manufacturing. This includes for
example laser cutting, caving, drilling,
welding and soldering as well as sur-
face treatment, micro-processing and
rapid-manufacturing. Furthermore, ILT
is engaged in laser plant technology
and process control as well as the entire
20mm
system technology.
www.ilt.fraunhofer.de
Figure 4: Patch produced by SLM and welded into PW4000 HPT Vane.

© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.laser-journal.de LTJ  59 
 laser material processing
Figure 5: CFM56 HPT Shroud before LMD processing (a), filling strategy (b) and LMD processed shroud (c).
turing and repair of new or existing aero en-
gine parts such as compressors, turbine and
combustor casings, static parts, centrifugal
compressors and small Inconel parts, BLISKs
(BLade Integrated DiSKs), vanes and blades.
The technical development within FANTA-
SIA includes:
   Improved and new manufacturing tech-
niques and chains
   Development of process layout for LMD
and SLM to improve part quality and
build-up rate.
   Processability of challenging materials
such as TiAl.
   Determination of mechanical properties.
   Development of heat treatment cycles
before and after laser treatment.
   Development of equipment (e.g. powder
feeding nozzles) for LMD and SLM pro-
cesses.
   Support of process development by mod-
elling of temperature and stress fields as
well as microstructure formation.
SLM processing of Inconel 718: The pro-
cessing of Inconel 718 by SLM aims at the
Rapid Manufacturing of small parts, as well
as patches for the repair of components,
e.g. bosses for repair of casings. Tensile test-
ing samples have been manufactured, heat
treated and tested at room temperature.
The main results are:
   An ultimate tensile strength of 1460 MPa
and a yield strength (0.2 %) of 1320 MPa
have been achieved after SLM and subse-
quent direct age heat treatment. By these
results, it has been demonstrated that
the static mechanical properties of SLM-
manufactured Inconel 718 are equal or
even better than those of conventionally
processed Inconel 718.
   The surface roughness of SLM-manufac-
tured parts was improved to a value of Ra
< 20 µm.
   Additionally a boss for demonstration of
the repair of a plenum case of a turbofan
engine has been manufactured by SLM
(Fig. 3).
60 LTJ April 2010  No. 2
SLM processing of Mar M247 patch for
PW4000 HPT Vane: Figure 4 shows a patch
for a HPT vane produced by SLM as well as
the manually TIG welded patch placed into
the vane.
This patch made of MAR M247 had cracks
beyond acceptable limits and was only used
for demonstration purposes. Meanwhile
Fraunhofer ILT has set up a manufacturing
chain for the patch so that the crack-free
patches can be fabricated. After the SLM
process the surface of the patch is remelted
to close possible cracks near the surface. In a
second step the patch is hot isostatic pressed
so that the cracks inside the part can be re-
moved by applying high pressure at elevated
temperatures.
LMD processing of Rene N5 CFM56 HPT
Shroud SX: Figure 5 shows the repair of an
HPT shroud. In order to repair the surface of
this component the surface is scanned. The
scan data is used to generate the tool path for
the LMD process. The challenge is to spare
the cooling holes during LMD as well as to
avoid any melting of the thin edges of this
part. It was found out that an accurate filling
of the surface requires the scanning of each
shroud to derive an individual CNC program
for LMD due to the fact that the amount of
Five Technology Cluster
Measurement of a compressor
Laser Metal Deposition
Process control
Figure 6: Technology Clusters within the project TurPro.
55mm
wear is not the same for each shroud. It could
be demonstrated that LMD can be used for
the repair of the Rene N5 HPT shrouds.
The LMD process was developed with the
following characteristics:
   SX structure in the deposited material.
   Very low dilution by adapted build-up
strategy.
   Process chain including data acquisition,
tool patch generation and adapted LMD
process.
Project TurPro
Aim in the development of turbo-engines
is an efficient energy conversion and a re-
duction of the emissions. The increase of
efficiency can be increased by a higher tem-
perature of the fluid at the entrance of the
turbine.
The Fraunhofer ILT works jointly with the
Fraunhofer Institute for Production Tech-
nology IPT in the Innovation-Cluster »Tur-
Pro - Integrative Production Technology for
Energy-efficient Turbo-engines« at effective
and efficient manufacturing and repair con-
cepts for innovative materials. Aim of the
work is to develop an integrative process
chain for manufacturing and repair pro-
cesses of turbo-engine components.
Machining of a BLISK
Process design in CAM
© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
 laser material processing

The Innovation-Cluster is funded by the cal repairs on the leading edges and nickel-base alloy directly on a disk.
Fraunhofer Society, the local government of tips of BLISKs, as BLISK design and 5. Technology Cluster P “Process Monitor-
Nordrhein-Westfalen and a consortium of construction makes it impossible to ing” addresses the measurement and
companies from the turbo-engine industry replace individual, damaged blades. extraction of quality-relevant process
in a period of 3 years. Apart from the two c) LMD will achieve significant higher information in-situ whilst laser process-
Fraunhofer Institutes (ILT und IPT) the con- build-up rates and, in cooperation ing. This information will be used to
sortium comprises 4 turbo-engine OEMs, with Technology Cluster P “Process interrupt defective processes in time to
six other companies from the areas of tool- Monitoring”, will be further developed initiate corrective processing strategies,
machines, suppliers, software and service regarding process control for adaptive and fulfilling the relevant quality assur-
providers. high-speed LMD. The aim is to achieve ance documentation requirements (DIN
As seen in Fig. 6, the project is sub-divided economic, additive BLISK production ISO 9000 ff., VDA 6.1), e. g. for safety-
into five technology clusters, which interact by building up blades made from a relevant components.
through the cluster “CAx-Framework“:
1. The Technology Cluster C “CAx-Frame-
work“ covers the development and im-
plementation of the software modules
needed for the automated production
of new parts and the repair of turbine
blades and BLISKs.
2. Technology Cluster M “Machining”
deals with the development of grinding
and milling strategies for the production
and repair of turbine blades and BLISKs.
Materials difficult to machine and com-
plex geometries represent a production
technology challenge in terms of the
economics of the processes. In order to
ensure that machining operations are
carried out efficiently, the entire process
chain must be developed to reach but
not exceed its technical limits.
3. Technology Cluster G “Geometrical
Figure 7: Processing head: continuous coaxial powder nozzle with integrated shielding
Data Acquisition” has the objective of gas supply.
selecting, qualifying and providing suit-
able equipment which enables fast and
Flange
precise measurement of the geometry
of turbine blades and BLISKs and deals
with concepts for the integration of these
equipment into machine tools.
4. Technology Cluster L “Laser” addresses
the following thematic areas:
a) SLM is qualified for the processing of 10 mm
typical iron-base alloys such as those
used for manufacture of cutting tools. Area repaired by LMD
Suitable process parameters and
processing strategies as well as the
mechanical properties will be investi- Figure 8: BR715 HPT case (a), by LMD locally repaired flange detail (b).
gated and determined. The aim is to
develop the additive manufacturing
process for newly developed, high
performance cutting tools with im-
proved lubrication feed channels and
passive vibration absorption. Repaired groove walls
b) LMD is qualified for the treatment of
typical iron-base alloys for stationary
compressor components. Suitable
process parameters and processing 20 mm
strategies as well as the mechanical
properties will be investigated and Figure 9: BR715 HPC Front drum (a), by LMD locally reconditioned groove wall detail
determined. The aim is to perform lo- (b).

© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.laser-journal.de LTJ  61 
 laser material processing
Opposite wall not
to be affected!
Groove
Repaired
1 mm groove wall
Figure 10: Cross section of a groove wall
reconditioned by LMD.
The key aspects of the project lie on the
processes machining, laser additive manu-
facturing by LMD and SLM, geometrical
data acquisition and process monitoring.
They are coupled together through the
CAx-framework with the aim to use com-
mon product information and process chain
modules. The implementation of the inte-
grated process chain will be demonstrated
on highly thermal and mechanical loaded
components like steam turbine blades, gas
turbine blades and BLISKs.
The project includes two stages: the first
stage comprises the technological tasks of
the different clusters. They are developed
by the project partners and linked to an in-
tegrated solution. In the second stage the
partner network will be broadened to speed
up the innovation in turbo-engines under
the overall concept of energy efficiency. Re-
sults of the project will be presented at the
first “Aachener Konferenz für den Turbo­
maschinenbau, AKT” on 23rd to 24th Febru-
ary 2011 in Aachen, Germany.
Laser Metal Deposition (LMD)
for the repair and of high-valued
turbo-engine components
Due to the low heat input (resulting in less
distortion and cracking in crack susceptible
materials), high cooling rates (resulting in
new microstructures and deposition pro-
cesses) and near net shape deposition (re-
sulting in less machining costs) high-valued
turbo-engine components like casings and
vanes as well as rotating parts like blades, ro-
tors, disks and BLISKs become processible.
LMD does not apply only as a repair tech-
nique but also as an additive manufactur-
ing technique, enabling the near-net shape
deposition of specific geometrical features
(such as bosses on casings) onto heat sensi-
tive components.
Repairs by LMD offer new prospects
with regard to “not repairable” highly-
integrated parts and “not repairable by
62 LTJ April 2010  No. 2
Figure 11: LMD machine for repairing genuine aero engine components at KLM,
Netherlands
conventional processes” parts like distor-
tion sensitive components due to process
specific advantages. Further development
and improvement of LMD combined with
ongoing systems engineering, e.g. process-
ing heads – powder nozzles with integrated
shielding gas supply – have enabled the
Fraunhofer ILT in co-operation with several
turbo-engine OEMs to carry out repairs on
as not repairable known parts. Repairs by
LMD are carried out without the use of a
processing gas chamber. The achieved mi-
cro structure yields in adequate static and
dynamic mechanical properties. The small
oversize of the near-net-shape deposition
guarantees a minimum of effort for finish-
machining operations. Additionally, LMD
can also be used as additive manufactur-
ing process. Examples are the deposition of
mesh structures as well as the deposition of
blades onto disks.
Fraunhofer ILT has been successfully cer-
tified by Rolls-Royce Deutschland for 15 dif-
ferent repair applications. Two of these ap-
plications are presented exemplarily below:
1st BR715 HPT (High Pressure Turbine) case
repair and 2nd BR715 HPC (High Pressure
Compressor) Front Drum repair.
From process development and systems
engineering to certification: On the basis
of the required metallurgical, mechanical
and geometrical specifications, all necessary
steps for qualifying the new repair process
are carried out in cooperation with the cus-
tomer. The process qualification covers three
steps. In the first step, the basic process de-
velopment is carried out by investigations
to verify that LMD can produce defect-free
layers and volumes in the material being
processed, by determining the static and
dynamic mechanical properties of the LMD
material (by the customer) and by determin-
ing suitable process layouts and parameters
on the basis of mock-up geometries. The
second step is the validation of the process
using genuine components by a transfer of
the process layout and parameters deter-
mined before including post heat treatment,
making adjustments where necessary, by a
finish-machining of the component sub-
sequent to LMD (by the customer) and by
testing of the finished component in an en-
gine test (by the customer). The third step
consists of the performed certification of the
process after successfully passing all above-
mentioned steps.
Because the processed components are
primarily made of Nickel or Titanium base
alloys, it is vital to avoid chemical reactions
with atmospheric elements such as oxygen,
nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen. The use of
special LMD nozzles (Fig. 7) ensures mini-
mum contamination with these elements
and makes the repair process much more
flexible. In contrast to processes requiring
gas chambers, there are no longer any size
restrictions on the components that can be
repaired. Furthermore, the technique elimi-
nates the cost and effort of filling and empty-
ing the processing chamber with inert gas.
This offers new prospects for OEM suppliers
and providers of maintenance and repair
services for aero engines.
© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Figure 12: LMD machine for repairing
genuine aero engine components at Rolls-
Royce in Oberursel, Germany.
Examples: Geometrical features on the sur-
face of a BR715 HPT case (material: Nickel
base alloy Nimonic PE16, used powder addi-
tive material: Nickel base alloy Inconel 625)
like bosses, brackets and flanges are repaired
locally with just one layer deposited (Fig. 8).
Due to the minimized heat input of the LMD
process distortion of the component can
nearly be avoided completely. The contami-
nation – oxidation – free LMD result is guar-
anteed by a proper local gas shielding using
the newly-developed powder nozzles.
Damping wire grooves of a BR715 HPC
Front drum (materials and powder additive
materials: Titanium base alloys Ti-6Al-4V and
Ti-6246) are repaired by a local recondition-
ing of the groove wall (Fig. 9). Main chal-
lenges regarding this application are that the
affecting of the opposite wall (heat input,
remelting etc.) is obligatory to be avoided
completely and that the processing accessi-
bility is immense restricted due to the groove
geometry (Fig. 10).
© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
laser material processing
Installed machines: Fraunhofer ILT has sup- tional techniques. On the other hand, SLM
ported installing complete LMD machines at offers completely new approaches in the
customer’s sites which are in use in the mold design of components. The qualification of
and die making, gear manufacturing and the SLM process for turbo-engine materials
reconditioning and aeronautics fields of ap- is one of the challenges in the near future.
plication. One example for a LMD machine Both projects, FANTASIA and TurPro, will ad-
for use in the aeronautics field of application dress these challenges.
installed together with the company Rolan
Robotics at a customer’s site is the LMD ma-
Acknowledgements
chine at KLM, Netherlands (Fig. 11). KLM
uses this machine for repairs of genuine aero The authors would like to thank the Euro-
engine components like disk labyrinth seals pean Commission for the support of the
(made from 17-4PH, Fig. 1), casings and FANTASIA project under the Framework of
blades. FP6 and the Ministerium für Innovation,
Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes
At the beginning of 2008 Rolls-Royce Nordrhein-Westfalen and the Fraunhofer
Deutschland has installed its first LMD ma- Society for the support of the Innovation
chine at the Oberursel site in cooperation Cluster TurPro. Also they would like to thank
with Fraunhofer ILT and Trumpf (see Fig. 12). all the affiliated companies in the projects for
In order to guarantee the standards required, their support.
additional features like measurement of the
powder mass flow and measurement of the
laser power and laser intensity distribution
have been implemented into the machine.
Outlook
Laser Additive Manufacturing offers unique
possibilities in the manufacturing and repair
of turbo-engine components. While LMD
has already been established for specific re-
pair applications, there is still potential for
this technique with the introduction of in-
tegrative process chains which consider the
whole manufacturing and repair process of
high-added value components. Also there is
a huge potential for the repair of materials
considered as “non-weldable” with conven-
www.laser-journal.de LTJ  63