Project description
Novel materials for powder bed additive manufacturing processes support turbine blade production
Low-pressure turbines (LPT) are an important part of new ultra-high bypass ratio engines, providing high aerodynamic efficiency in low-pressure operation that minimises noise. Innovative materials and additive manufacturing processes are key enablers of aircraft with lower weight, higher performance and increased reliability. The EU-funded NEWTEAM project is developing new alloys for powder bed additive manufacturing processes that can be used to produce the next generation of LPT blades. Work will include the development of three different alloys and the fabrication of representative blades using electron beam melting and laser beam melting.
Objective
The aim of NEWTEAM project is to develop ad assess alloys by Powder Bed Additive Manufacturing (PB-AM) processes to be applied on next generation of low pressure turbine (LPT) blades production.
- NEWTEAM will develop a modification in terms of chemical composition for the Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb alloy tailored on the needs of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) process and contemporary NEWTEAM will develop an optimization of the post processing heat treatments of this alloy both in terms of Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) and Heat Treatment (HT) customized to exploit the feature microstructure and phase composition of as-EBM material in order to increase the mechanical performances.
- NEWTEAM will increase the Topic Manager portfolio in terms of Nickel-base superalloys processed by Laser Beam Melting (LBM) for high temperature applications to be employed for LPT blades, performing an extensive optimization of the LBM process parameters for 2 Ni-base alloys. Contemporary NEWTEAM will develop an optimization of the post processing heat treatments of these alloys both in terms of HIP, HT and part surface finishing.
- NEWTEAM will test and validate the 3 materials developed during the project (1 Ti-48-2-2 based + 2 Ni-base alloys) with an extensive mechanical characterization with at least a NADCAP certification.
- NEWTEAM will fabricate representative LPT blades via PB-AM together with non conventional hollow ones. The final goal is to achieve at least a TRL 3.
- NEWTEAM will develop an enhanced process simulation tool for EBM process, tailored on Titanium Aluminides alloys capable to give information about the properties of the material in terms of final chemistry and microstructure.
- NEWTEAM will develop a surface finishing post processing for complex shapes (like hollow blades) produced by LBM in Ni-base alloys in order to avoid the needs of machining of the parts since machining means to limit the freedom of shape complexity, that is in principle enabled by AM design.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CS2-IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
50121 Firenze
Italy