Patent ID: 8636890

Claim:
A method of repairing damaged airfoils removed from service, comprising the steps of: stripping thermal barrier coatings from the airfoil; locally grit blasting a fillet radius portion of the airfoil to remove cracks from the fillet portion, while locally removing a bond coating from the fillet; removing damaged material from an airfoil tip portion; replacing superalloy material on the airfoil tip portion; thermally etch the airfoil; applying platinum plating over the locally removed bond coat and over the replaced superalloy material; diffusion heat treating the platinum plated airfoil; vapor phase aluminiding the airfoil to form a PtAl coating over the applied platinum coating; wherein the step of applying platinum plating over the replaced superalloy material on the airfoil tip portion and over the grit blasted fillet portion of the airfoil includes placing the airfoil in a plating tool that selectively coats and restores plating thickness to the airfoil tip portion and the fillet radius portion of the airfoil; wherein the plating tool further includes a first mesh screen adjacent the fillet radius portion of the airfoil and at least one second mesh screen adjacent the airfoil tip portion; further including applying power to the airfoil from a power supply, wherein platinum plating is applied from a plating solution to the airfoil tip portion and to the fillet radius portion of the airfoil, plating also being applied to regions of the airfoil in the plating solution adjacent the airfoil tip portion and the fillet radius portion, the amount of plating applied to the adjacent regions decreasing with increasing distance from the mesh screen, the amount of plating deposited adjacent the tip portion being further restricted by at least one opening in the plating tool adjacent the tip portion.