Power Turbine Vane Ring (PT6 Engine) Repair Development

Today’s high technology gas turbine engines incorporate the world’s most exotic alloys and are built to some of the most precise dimensional tolerances encountered in any industry. The constant drive for increased performance while substantially reducing fuel consumption and weight has pushed engine components and their designers to limits never before realized. To achieve these limits new methods and materials have evolved; not exclusively in the production of the engines but also in the repair and maintenance of them. The typical problems encountered in repair and maintenance are numerous and varied as are their solutions. This paper, however, will concentrate on one in particular and that is the typical damage encountered on a first stage power turbine vane ring and the technology employed to repair such damage. The vane ring was chosen because it is representative of a common problem encountered by all gas turbine engine manufacturers and simultaneously involves some of the most up to date repair techniques to restore it.