The Additive Manufacturing Users Group works hard to stimulate additive manufacturing industry advances with conferences and competitions. PERFECT-3D and the rest of the Renaissance Services team are entering an innovatively-cast turbine engine rotor to take on all comers in the AM organization’s Advanced Concepts competition at the Chicago confab the second week of March.
Rotors are integral parts of turbine engines. For the AMUG Technical Competition, PERFECT-3D and the rest of the RSI team are entering their 10-inch diameter Cooled Integrally Bladed Rotor (CIBR) with cast-in cooling holes. They designed and 3D-printed the innovative ceramic mold, cores, and related mold tooling for the rotor. The Bescast foundry in Willoughby, Ohio cast the part for the Windy City showdown.
Small turbine engines power many military drones, like this missile-armed MQ-9A Reaper. Credit: US Air Force
The PERFECT-3D advanced approach to reducing costs and lead time in producing turbine engine castings is 3D-printing molds using ceramic additive manufacturing. This enables making castings without the cost of hard tooling. US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) officials recently asked Renaissance Services team to apply their expertise to making castings for blades in small turbine engines for military drones. The CIBR is one of the results.
The following figure shows the finished 10-inch diameter Cooled Integrally Bladed Rotor with cast-in cooling holes. PERFECT-3D team members and other Renaissance Services team members designed and additively manufactured the ceramic mold and related tooling to allow the making of this complex part quickly
Finished Cooled Integrally Bladed Rotor with Cast-in Cooling Holes
PERFECT-3D’s people have proven ceramic 3D-printing of tooling for castings can enable the production of advanced turbine engine components. Advanced turbine blade castings will help many UAVs take flight!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The US Air Force Research Laboratory supported some of this effort with “Low-Cost Additive Manufacturing Tooling for Castings” (Contract FA8650-22-C-5009).
Click here to access info about PERFECT-3D’s ceramic additive manufacturing solutions
To learn how ceramic additive manufacturing can work for you, contact:
PERFECT-3D
Renaissance Services Inc.
1 Herald Square
Fairborn, Ohio 45324
937-322-3227
[email protected]
