Patent ID: 8387853

Claim:
A method of restoring a metallic component, the method comprising: (i) removing material from a region of the component to be restored in a manner which leaves a cavity in a surface of the component; (ii) establishing cavity profile data representing the profile of the cavity surface; (iii) using the cavity profile data to form a first metallic repair insert having a contact surface complementary to the cavity surface and a locating element on a periphery of the first metallic repair insert to locate the first metallic repair insert in position for subsequent fusing operations; (iv) applying the first metallic repair insert to the component with the contact surface of the first metallic repair insert in contact with the cavity surface; (v) applying heat to the first metallic repair insert to fuse the contact surface of the first metallic repair insert to the cavity surface; wherein in step (v), the heat is applied to the first metallic repair insert successively at a first set of spaced locations on the first repair insert so as to fuse the contact surface of the first metallic repair insert to the cavity surface successively at the respective locations; (vi) further applying heat to the first metallic repair insert successively at a second set of spaced locations overlapping with the formed by respective gaps among the first set of spaced locations heated in step (v), wherein there is a heating overlap between the first set of spaced locations and the second set of spaced locations; wherein the heat applied at both the first set and the second set of spaced locations penetrates through the first metallic repair insert and affects the metallic component in order to fuse the first metallic repair insert and the metallic component; and (vii) following the fusing of the first metallic repair insert to the cavity surface, at least one subsequent repair insert is applied to a preceding repair insert, the subsequent repair insert having a contact surface complementary to the exposed surface of the preceding repair insert and a locating element on a periphery of the subsequent repair insert to locate the subsequent repair insert in position for fusing, and heat is applied to the subsequent repair insert to fuse the subsequent repair insert to the preceding repair insert.