Sensor integration in hybrid additive manufactured parts for real-time monitoring in turbine operations

Real-time monitoring of operation conditions such as tempeatures and vibrations enables efficiency enhancement for maintenance tasks. In energy industry monitoring of critical components such as turbine blades is essential for the operation safety. But the effective recording of critical process data is a challenging task due to the extreme operating conditions. With a hybrid processing approach combining two additive manufacturing technologies new classes of self-monitoring components become possible allowing data acquisition directly inside the component. Using the example of a turbine blade, the hybrid process chain is described. The turbine blade blank is produced via Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) with channels for the integration of high temperature sensors. After integration cavities were closed by Laser Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) followed by classical milling operations for part finishing. The data acquisition is integrated in state-of-the-art product l ifecycle monitoring (PLM) software to create a digital twin. Evaluation shows that temperature could be successfully monitored at conditions of Π= 550°C.