HangZhou Changchen Industrial Co.Ltd. , https://www.hzcc16.com
Siemens, which has high hopes for metal 3D printing, has recently opened the door because the new gas turbine blades they have produced through this technology have successfully passed the rigorous test of 13,000 rpm at 1250 ° C (the location is Siemens' gas turbine in Lincoln, UK Factory), and this blade is made by the British company Materials Solutions, which they just bought in August 2016.
It is known that its material is made of polycrystalline nickel-based superalloy powder, and the internal cooling structure adopts a new design. These two points are the key to its ultimate test – the former gives it enough strength to withstand high temperatures, high pressures, and high speeds, while the latter increases its heat dissipation efficiency.
In actual testing, these 3D printed blades were mounted on a SGT-400 industrial grade gas turbine with a Siemens power of up to 13 MW and then gradually accelerated to 1600 km/h. At this speed, they are subjected to a force of up to 11 tons (equivalent to a fully loaded London bus)! At the same time, they are surrounded by high temperature gas at 1250 ° C and then cooled by air at 400 ° C. However, thanks to the new design and materials, they finally passed the test intact.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to improving blade performance, the use of 3D printing technology brings other benefits, such as significantly reducing development time by nearly 90%!
Based on this success, Siemens has decided to continue to use Materials 3's metal 3D printing technology to try to improve its gas turbine.
Siemens 3D printing metal gas turbine blades successfully passed the 1250 ° C high speed test