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Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97

Conference MEFORM 2015, Light Metals – Forming Technologies and Further Processing

Wrought TiAl blades

P. Janschek*
Leistritz Turbinentechnik GmbH, Lempstr. 24, 42859 Remscheid, Germany

Abstract

Leistritz have developed an isothermal forging process for blades made of TiAl alloys during the past 18 years. The optimal
process window was determined as 1100 °C to 1250 °C with extremely low strain rates. The high process temperature requires
die material such as Molybdenum alloys under protective atmosphere. Leistritz have established the isothermal forging process
on a special hydraulic press. First forged blades have been HPC blades of the Rolls-Royce BR715 engine made of Gamma-TAB.
The following evolution step was the production of 900 blades for HPC 7-9 of the Rolls-Royce E3E experimental engine from
TNB-V4. All machining of these blades was done in the Leistritz Nürnberg works. Up to now more than 10.000 LPT stage 3
blades for the PW 1100G for MTU have been forged of cast TNM. Currently Leistritz are the only approved supplier for these
parts.

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

© 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Committee of Conference MEFORM 2015, Light Metals –
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Forming Technologies
Selection and peer-review and
underFurther. This is
responsibility of an
theopen accessCommittee
Conference article under the CC BY-NC-ND
of Conference license
MEFORM 2015, Light Metals – Forming
Technologies and Further
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Keywords: Titanium Aluminides; isothermal forging; aero engine blades

1. Properties of titaniumaluminides

Due to their strong covalent bond intermetallic phases they feature high stability even at high temperatures.
Especially Titaniumaluminides (TiAl) combine these good mechanical properties with low density. For example the
heat resistance of TiAl is comparable to Nickel base alloys (Fig. 1(a)). Some other important properties are: melting

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-2191-6940-363; fax: +49-2191-6940-236.

E-mail address: pjanschek@leistritz.com

2214-7853 © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Committee of Conference MEFORM 2015, Light Metals – Forming Technologies and Further
doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2015.05.024
 P. Janschek / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97 S93

point app. 1460 °C, low density 3.9 g/cm³ to 4.2 g/cm³, Young’s modulus 170 GPa at 600 °C, UTS 780 MPa at 600
°C and good corrosion resistance. In the as-cast condition it is quite brittle, but by proper thermo-mechanical
treatment ductilities beyond 2% can be achieved. Dynamic recrystallization during forging and subsequent heat
treatment generate fine grain microstructure which exhibits as good static and as well dynamic strength at elevated
temperature.

T iA l

Inco 718

Fig. 1. (a) specific strength of TiAl and (b) application of TiAl blades in aero engines

2. Motivation for the application of TiAl in aero engines

Economic and environmental requirements for aviation have forced the aero engine manufacturers to
continuously increase the efficiency of their turbines. This may be achieved by raising temperature in the
combustion chamber and reducing mass by lightweight parts. The new material class of Titanium Aluminides shows
high temperature properties comparable to Nickel alloys at half the weight. So it is the material to substitute rotating
blades in the high pressure compressor (HPC) and the low pressure turbine (LPT) of aero engines (Fig. 1(b)), which
today are made from Nickel base alloys because of the thermal impact. Due to less centrifugal force of the light
weight blades the discs carrying these blades can be designed more filigree at less weight. The reduction in rotating
mass increases on the other hand the dynamic behavior of the complete engine.
However these advantages are gained by some effort. The characteristics of TiAl are more like those of ceramics
© Rolls-Royce
than metals. So forming is very difficult and only can be performed by a special process. During the recent 18 years
Leistritz Turbinentechnik, funded by the German government, have developed the isothermal forging of TiAl.

3. Isothermal forging of compressor blades

TiAl alloys are produced by vacuum induction melting (VIM). The ingot’s microstructure is coarse and
inhomogeneous, so that forging is not possible in this condition. Forming needs hydrostatic pressure to avoid
cracking. Refinement is applied by hot extrusion with special insulation technique, so that the microstructure can
recrystallize to smaller grains. In this condition forging at high temperatures and extremely low strain rates is
possible. For further processing the extruded bars are decanned and separated to preforms.
S94 P. Janschek / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97

Fig. 2. (a) forging parameters and (b) flow stress

Fig. 3. (a) forging steps and (b) machined compressor blades

First trials have been performed with the alloy Gamma-TAB (Ti-47Al-4Nb). For the determination of the forging
parameter window a comprehensive number of upsetting tests on a Gleeble test machine had to be performed. The
result was a forging window at very low strain rates at high temperature. Under these conditions flow stress is quite
low (Fig. 2). About 100 BR715 HPC blades for Rolls-Royce Germany have been isothermally forged in 3 forging
steps. After heat treatment they have been machined by electro-chemical milling (ECM) at Leistritz Nürnberg plant
(Fig. 3).
The following evolution step was the production of 900 blades for HPC 7-9 of the Rolls-Royce E3E experimental
engine made of the more creep-resistant alloy TNB-V4 (Ti-45Al-5Nb-0.2B-0.2C). From the extruded bar sections
have been cut and directly forged to blades. Fig. 4 shows on the left the preform in the die prior to forging, on the
right after forging. In the isothermal forging process the dies as well as the forging are heated to prevent from
temperature loss during the long forging time of 5 to 10 minutes per part. The temperature of forging and die was
1150 °C. The dies were made of Molybdenum alloys which exhibit high heat resistance. To protect the die material
from oxidation the process needs vacuum or inert gas in the forging chamber. After forging a solution treatment is
applied at temperatures near alpha-transus, followed by rapid cooling to get microstructure with fine lamellae.
 P. Janschek / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97 S95

Fig. 4 TiAl compressor blade; left before and right after isothermal forging

Fig. 5 Manufacture sequence of HPC blades Fig.6. HPC blades stages 7, 8, 9 of E3E

Because the heat resistance of commercially available Mo alloys is limited it is hard to meet narrow tolerances in
near net shape forging. So the envelope forged parts with a certain oversize need further machining by electro
chemical milling (ECM), see Fig. 5 (left: forged part; middle: ECM shaped; right: finished). Due to the very slow
forming, which is more a hot creep than a forging process, the number of parts per time is small. To improve the
output and make it more economic, tooling had been designed to make more than one part per stroke. In
Molybdenum discs of 600 mm diameter 30 identical impressions have been machined. Outside the press the lower
dies have been loaded with preforms and the upper dies put on top. The whole package was transferred into the
press chamber, heated to forging temperature and pressed in a 50 MN isothermal press. By this procedure 30 blades
were forged at one stroke. By using several of these packages the output can be increased dramatically (Fig. 7).
S96 P. Janschek / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97

Fig. 7. (a) multiple die with preforms and (b) blades after forging

4. Isothermal forging of turbine blades

After having successfully produced compressor blades with relatively small blade length of about 30 mm the next
challenge was forging of turbine blades with 200 mm length. Input material are cast billets of the TiAl alloy TNM
(Ti-43.5Al-4Nb-1Mo-0.1B). In this alloy the dominant phase in the as-cast condition at forging temperature is the
forging friendly E-phase, so no grain refinement by extrusion is needed prior to forging. An isothermal two-step
forging process has been developed. In the first operation the volume portions for root and shroud are formed by
lateral extrusion. The shape of the blade is formed in the subsequent forging step. To meet the required properties
the content of E-phase is adjusted by a specific heat treatment after forging. Machining and grinding gives the blade
the final shape.

Fig. 8 Blade in isothermal die Fig. 9 Forged LPT blade stage 3 for PW1134G

Up to now more than 10,000 blades for the engine PW1134G as power unit for the Airbus A320neo have been
produced, see Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. The application of TiAl alloys to blades in fast rotating low pressure turbines is a
remarkable contribution to the fuel saving of the new generation of geared turbofans (Fig. 10). The first flight of the
Airbus A320 Neo (Fig. 11) was on September 25th, 2014. Leistritz Turbinentechnik GmbH is the only certified
supplier of these parts to MTU who are responsible for the LPT modules of the PW1000G aero engine family.
 P. Janschek / Materials Today: Proceedings 2S (2015) S92 – S97 S97

Fig. 10. PW1100G engine (© MTU) Fig. 11. Airbus A320 Neo, first flight 25th Sept. 2014 (© MTU)

5. Conclusion

After 20 years of development and investigation the new material TiAl has been successfully introduced into the
low pressure turbine of aero engines. The increased properties of forged blades compared to the cast condition allow
the application in fast rotating low pressure turbines. After being certified for geared turbofan engines the demand
for such blades has dramatically increased. In order to supply to the growing market Leistritz has bought two new
isothermal presses.