Patent ID: 7587818

Claim:
A method for repairing a damaged gas turbine blade, comprising the steps of furnishing the damaged gas turbine blade which has previously been in service and which is made of a base metal; removing any damaged material from a damaged blade tip of the damaged gas turbine blade; and weld repairing the damaged blade tip with a nickel-base superalloy repair alloy that is more resistant to oxidation than is the base metal in the operating environment of the gas turbine blade to form a tip-repaired gas turbine blade having a repaired blade tip, wherein the repair alloy has a composition different from the base metal, and wherein the method does not include any step of coating a lateral surface of the repaired blade tip with a non-ceramic coating after the step of weld repairing; and heat treating the tip-repaired gas turbine blade at a temperature from about 1850° F. to about 2050° F. and for a time of from about 1 hour to about 8 hours, followed by an ageing heat treatment at a temperature of from about 1500° F. to about 1700° F. and for a time of from about 2 hours to about 16 hours.