Composite Investment Casting Core for Turbine Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current investment casting techniques face challenges in manufacturing fine, precisely located cooling passageways for superalloy turbine components, as they are difficult to manufacture and can be fragile, which affects the efficiency of gas turbine engines.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the creation of a composite investment casting core using refractory metal cores and ceramic cores, where refractory metal tines are cut, bent, and assembled to form a comb-like structure for casting airfoil components, allowing for precise and robust cooling passageways.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If ceramic casting cores are used to form fine cooling passageways, then manufacturing precision of cooling features is improved, but the cores become fragile and difficult to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines ceramic material with a metallic support structure (stiffening ribs) to create a composite core assembly. The ceramic portions provide the fine cooling passageway geometry with high precision, while the metallic ribs provide structural strength and rigidity, preventing the ceramic from being fragile during handling and casting processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The core is divided into multiple segments: ceramic portions forming the cooling passageways and separate metallic stiffening ribs. These segments are assembled together to form the complete core assembly, allowing each component to be optimized independently - ceramic for precision and metallic for strength.
2Productivity
If finer cooling features are manufactured to maximize cooling benefit, then cooling efficiency is improved, but manufacturing difficulty and fragility increase
Solution Approach 1:
By using composite construction with metallic stiffening ribs supporting the ceramic cooling features, the patent enables manufacturing of finer cooling passageways without proportionally increasing manufacturing difficulty. The metallic ribs provide the necessary structural framework that makes fine ceramic features manufacturable and handleable.
Solution Approach 2:
The metallic stiffening ribs are strategically placed only in locations where structural support is needed, rather than throughout the entire core. This localized reinforcement provides manufacturing ease and handling strength while preserving the fine cooling features in the ceramic portions.
Data Source
AI summary
In a method for manufacturing a combination investment casting core, a plurality of cores are each formed by cutting a metallic sheet to define a first portion and a number of separate second portions linked by the first portion. The second portions are bent out of local alignment with the first portion. The first portions of the cores are assembled and secured to each other.