Repairing microcracks with lasers

Researchers at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have developed a laser wielding robot (bow to your new robot overlord!) that can repair small cracks in a variety of materials.

It does this by spot-melting the surface under repair while an unspecified "powder" (presumably made out of the same material being repaired) is blown onto the melted surface. Using a fiber laser means that the area being repaired is highly localized and the surrounding areas undergo less stress when compared with traditional repair methods.

This laser method is very flexible. Depending on the components and applications concerned, we can use metals such as titanium, nickel and cobalt, hard metals and even ceramics. This allows us to seal cracks in tools, or rebuild chipped edges,” explains Dr. Steffen Nowotny. “The process enables us to accurately reconstruct several millimeters of material. This is sufficient to repair damage such as that caused by a bird strike to the delicate blades or disks of aircraft turbines.”


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Michael Harrison

Husband, Programmer, Irish dancer, tinkerer, astronomer, layabout (as much as possible)

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