Advanced solidification processing of an industrial gas turbine engine component

This paper will describe the efforts of the Advanced Turbine Airfoil Manufacturing Technology Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Howmet Research Corporation. The purpose of the program is to develop single-crystal and directionally solidified casting technologies to benefit Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) industrial and utility gas turbine engines. The focus is on defining and implementing advanced Vacuum Induction Melting (VIM)furnace enhancements that provide precise control of mold temperatures during solidification. Emphasis was placed on increasing the total magnitude of thermal gradients while minimizing the difference in maximum and minimum gradients produced during the solidification process. Advanced VIM casting techniques were applied to Solar Turbines Incorporated's Titan 130 First Stage High Pressure Turbine Blade under the ATS program. A comparison of the advanced VIM casting process to the conventional Bridgeman casting process will be presented as it pertains to the thermal gradients achieved during solidification, microstructure, elemental partitioning characterization, and solution heat treat response.