Directed Energy Deposition

Directed Energy Deposition (DED) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) process which forms a part or rebuilds a part by depositing material melted by focused thermal energy from a laser, electron beam, or plasma arc. DED is highly precise in its ability to produce complex geometries and excellent surface finishes.

ES3 developed, qualified, and implemented a knife-edge restoration repair for the TF33 Gas Turbine Engine front and rear compressor spacers. We modified a Trumpf TruLaser Cell 3000 machine to enable the knife edge repair with Ti-6Al-4V, Incoloy 901, 17-22A Steel, and 4340 Steel.

The ES3 developed and implemented knife edge repair for gas turbine engine front and rear compressor spacers.

The DED process rebuilding the knife edge seal on the engine compressor spacers.

ES3 also developed, qualified, and implemented a DED flange repair for a gas turbine compressor case. We customized a DMG Mori Lasertec 125 DED Hybrid machine to affect the 410 stainless steel compressor case repair.

The ES3 system to DED rebuild a gas turbine compressor case.

ES3 also develops Extreme High-Speed Laser Application (EHLA) DED processes. For example, ES3 developed a tungsten carbide coating process for gas turbine engine parts of Incoloy 901 and 4340 Steel. The developed system is a hybrid which both DED deposits material and performs subtractive machining.

The EHLA process is shown above with an enlarged scan of the coating and substrate shown below.
The EHLA system developed, qualified, and implemented by ES3 uses a modified DMG-Mori Lsertec 3000 DED Hybrid.