Rib Bumper System for Gas Turbine Casting Wall Thickness Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Maintaining wall thickness specifications during the investment casting process of gas turbine engine components with complex internal cooling passageways is challenging due to the thin-walled constructions and the need for precise core spacing.
Innovation Solution
A casting system with a core assembly featuring a first core with a flat surface, a second core with a tapered surface, and a bumper that spaces and positions these cores to maintain minimum rib thickness, allowing for the formation of ribs with flat and tapered surfaces between cavities, ensuring accurate wall thickness in components like turbine blades and vanes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If core spacing is reduced to achieve complex internal cooling passageways, then component geometry complexity is improved, but wall thickness control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A bumper is introduced as an intermediary element between the first and second cores. The bumper includes a nose that contacts the first core and a body that contacts the second core, thereby mediating the spacing relationship between cores and ensuring consistent rib thickness in the cast component.
Solution Approach 2:
The bumper is a sacrificial element that is removed after casting. It serves its purpose during the casting process by maintaining core spacing, then is discarded (via core removal) after the component is formed,无需 to be retained in the final product.
2Manufacturing precision
If core spacing is tightly controlled to maintain wall thickness, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bumper serves as a simple intermediary mechanical element that physically maintains the required spacing between cores. Rather than relying on complex positioning mechanisms or precision fixtures, the bumper provides a straightforward mechanical solution to spacing control.
3Manufacturing precision
If bumper nose contacts flat core surface, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bumper is designed with asymmetric geometry: a nose portion with a radius of curvature that is smaller than the radius of curvature of the flat core surface. This asymmetric configuration allows the bumper nose to contact the core at a specific point, ensuring precise rib thickness control while maintaining relative simplicity in the bumper design.
Data Source
AI summary
A component according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a first cavity, a second cavity and a rib between the first cavity and the second cavity, the rib including a first rib surface that is substantially flat and a second rib surface that is tapered.