Additive Monolithic Centrifugal Pump Impeller and Shaft
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Solution Overview
Problem
The production of conventional centrifugal pumps is time-consuming and costly due to the need for individual component manufacturing and assembly, with challenges in minimizing assembly effort, ensuring reliable operation, adapting specifications, and addressing thermal expansion coefficient differences, while also considering recyclability and sustainable development.
Innovation Solution
A centrifugal pump design where the impeller and shaft are manufactured as a one-piece component using selectively melted and solidified metallic powder layers, with a housing and bearings also produced by successive layer solidification, allowing for adaptable and cost-effective production with minimized assembly effort, and incorporating radiation-generated components with varying material properties for load-bearing and sealing functions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional centrifugal pumps are manufactured with individual components made from different materials, then each component can be optimized for its specific function (strength, wear resistance), but the production process becomes very time-consuming and costly due to separate manufacturing and assembly of multiple parts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple functional components (impeller, shaft, bearing housing, seals) into a single monolithic structure manufactured by additive manufacturing. This merging eliminates the need for separate manufacturing and assembly of individual components, directly resolving the contradiction by maintaining functional optimization through integrated design while dramatically reducing production time and assembly complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The single-component design performs multiple functions simultaneously: the impeller blades transfer mechanical energy to fluid, the integrated shaft provides rotational support, the bearing housing accommodates bearings, and built-in seals prevent leakage. This multi-functionality approach maintains all necessary component functions while eliminating separate parts, resolving the contradiction between component optimization and production efficiency
2Ease of manufacture
If multiple individual components are assembled together to form the centrifugal pump, then the pump can be manufactured from materials optimized for specific requirements, but the assembly effort and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple components into one monolithic structure where different regions of the same component serve different functions. The additive manufacturing process allows different sections to have different material properties or treatments while maintaining a single continuous structure, eliminating assembly complexity while preserving manufacturing flexibility through digital design and selective material deposition
Solution Approach 2:
The additive manufacturing process enables local variation in material properties within the single component. Different regions can have different densities, alloy compositions, or microstructures optimized for their specific functional requirements (e.g., wear-resistant surfaces in contact with fluid, high-strength regions for load-bearing areas) without requiring separate components, thus reducing assembly complexity while maintaining material optimization
3Ease of operation
If conventional centrifugal pumps use a split housing with multiple parts, then assembly is possible, but the number of parts and assembly steps increases, making production more time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the housing into a single integrated component that incorporates the bearing housing, suction port, discharge port, and seal chambers. This monolithic housing eliminates the need for assembling multiple housing parts, directly reducing assembly time while maintaining all necessary operational functions through the additive manufacturing process
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach results in a cost-effective, reliable, and adaptable centrifugal pump with reduced assembly effort, minimized thermal expansion issues, and enhanced recyclability, while maintaining component strength and wear resistance through chemically homogeneous yet structurally diverse materials.
Implementation Method 1
The impeller and shaft are manufactured as a one-piece component using selectively melted and solidified metallic powder layers, with a housing and bearings also produced by successive layer solidification
Implementation Method 2
Centrifugal pumps are fluid machines that utilize centrifugal force to pump fluids. The fluid to be pumped enters the centrifugal pump through a housing part, the suction port. The fluid is captured by the rotating impeller and carried outward.
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a centrifugal pump, comprising as components at least one impeller (1), a shaft (5) and a housing (2). The impeller (1) is connected to the shaft (5) in a rotationally fixed manner and is at least partially surrounded by a housing (2). The impeller (1) is produced together with the shaft (5) as an integral component from a construction material by successive solidification of layers by means of radiation.