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Making Lighter Aircraft Engines With Titanium Aluminide Blades
Making Lighter Aircraft Engines With Titanium Aluminide Blades
TAKEKAWA Mitsuhiro
KURASHIGE Masashi
Materials Technology Department
Research & Engineering Division,
Aero-Engine & Space Operations,
IHI Corporation
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Technologies
Fan disk, blades, vanes, Compressor disk, blades, Combustion chamber Turbine, blades, vanes
case vanes, case liner : cast nickel, cobalt alloy
: forged titanium alloy, : forged titanium, nickel : sheet nickel, cobalt
compound materials alloy alloy Turbine disk
: forged nickel alloy
Fan Compressor Combustion chamber
Turbine Exhaust
temperature (°C)
2 000
Core stream
1 500
1 000
500
The basic components of a jet engine are a fan, a compressor, this task, a method called precision casting is used.
a combustion chamber, and a turbine, and the inside of the Casting is one of the oldest metalworking technologies.
combustion chamber where the temperature is hottest must With casting, molten metal is poured into a mold where it
be able to withstand temperatures close to 2 000°C. As solidifies, yielding the required shape. Precision casting is
engines have become hotter, the material used for the also a technology that has been in use since ancient times,
turbine following the combustion chamber has transitioned and it has been used to fabricate objects such as Buddhist
from heat-resistant steel primarily containing iron to heat- statues, works of art, and ornaments. Today, precision
resistant alloys primarily containing nickel or cobalt. In casting is also being used for fashion accessories as well as
addition, the practical implementation of new materials golf club heads and dental therapy.
such as Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs) is advancing. Although there are several types of precision casting, this
Currently, IHI is pursuing research that aims to substitute article will describe the overall process of the lost-wax
the nickel alloy used in the low-pressure part of the turbine casting method being used to fabricate turbine blades.
with titanium aluminide, which boasts superior properties. Casting involves using a mold that serves as the “original”
of the product, but whereas in typical casting a wooden
Precision casting yields complex shapes mold with the same shape as the product is repeatedly used,
Heat-resistant alloys such as nickel alloys have the merit of in lost-wax casting, a wax mold is used instead of a wooden
excellent specific strength (strength divided by density) in mold. First, a metal mold is used to create wax molds (wax
high-temperature regions, but are difficult to process. A patterns), as many as the number of turbine blades. The
single engine requires several hundred turbine blades, and completed wax molds (wax clusters) are grouped around a
these complexly shaped turbine blades must be mass- central sprue that pours molten metal. Processing multiple
produced with high dimensional precision. To accomplish wax molds at the same time increases productivity.
By alternately layering slurry (a liquid mixture of ceramic
Property
Nickel alloy Titanium powder dissolved in a binder) and stucco (sand) around the
(typical) aluminide alloy
assembled wax molds, a casting mold is formed on the
Specific weight (g/cm3) Approx. 8.2 Approx. 4.2
outside. Next, the wax molds on the inside are melted and
Specific strength at discharged with an autoclave. This is why this casting
(strength/density) High Very high
high temperature
method is called lost-wax casting. Afterwards, the casting
Castability Good Poor
mold is fired in order to obtain sufficient strength.
Product fabrication cost Inexpensive Expensive
Molten metal is poured into the hollow cavity created by
Comparison of nickel alloy and titanium aluminide alloy the lost wax. After solidification, the individual parts are
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IHI Corporation
cut away, finished, and subjected to various tests before The high melting point of titanium aluminide (over
being considered completed products. 1 500°C) also makes precision casting difficult. Metallic
Besides turbine blades, this kind of precision casting is materials are melted in a vacuum in order to avoid reactions
also being used to fabricate consumer goods such as with oxygen. For this reason, if melting takes too long,
impellers for automobile turbochargers, golf club heads, there is a risk of the aluminum evaporating, which would
and ornamental objects. cause a change in the composition. The material
composition of turbine blades is required to strictly adhere
The challenges of working with titanium to prescribed standards, so changes in the composition
aluminide during melting must be avoided. For this reason, a high-
Titanium aluminide blades, which are still being developed, output heating system able to rapidly heat material up to a
are intended for application as blades in the low-pressure high melting point becomes necessary.
turbine part of an engine. The reason for this is that lighter Molten titanium aluminide has poor fluidity, another
turbine blades also lead to a lighter disk where the blades factor that makes the precision casting of titanium
attach, which yields a significant reduction in weight. Table aluminide difficult. In the field of casting, fluidity is a term
1 compares the material properties of a conventional nickel referring to the property of a molten metal's ability to flow
alloy and a titanium aluminide alloy. Titanium aluminide evenly into every corner of a casting mold. Turbine blades
has a specific weight that is approximately half that of are only several millimeters thick in some areas, so the
nickel alloy, and a sufficient specific strength in high- product shape cannot be formed if fluidity is poor. For this
temperature regions, but its poor castability makes mass reason, titanium aluminide blades previously developed by
production difficult, and fabrication costs are also high. IHI were fabricated by first making a “fat casting,” which
However, if mass production using precision casting similar has more machine stock and is larger than the final shape,
to that for nickel alloy production could be achieved, it and then cutting away unwanted portions by machining to
would be possible to fabricate titanium aluminide blades reach the final shape. One goal of the current casting
easily and inexpensively. process development is to cast a “net shape” that is close to
In order to achieve this goal, the establishment of an the final shape with casting alone.
efficient titanium aluminide blade fabrication process is Conventionally, casting with materials having poor
indispensable. IHI is currently engaged in the development fluidity has involved the use of technologies such as
of a titanium aluminide casting process that uses a centrifugal casting that utilizes centrifugal force, and
precision casting process similar to conventional nickel vacuum casting, in which molten stock is drawn into the
alloy. mold cavity. However, with the new casting process we are
There are several challenges in conducting precision aiming to utilize the current nickel alloy casting process to
casting with titanium aluminide. The first is the high the maximum extent possible. Finding ways to minimize
reactivity of titanium aluminide. Casting involves pouring investments in new equipment and reduce fabrication costs
molten metal into a casting mold, but with conventional is a major issue in process development.
techniques, the titanium aluminide reacts with the crucible
used for melting and the casting mold, and the substances
Reaching for the skies of 2020
generated by such reactions are mixed in as impurities. Also, As discussed above, there are various challenges in casting
since the portions that reacted with the casting mold differ titanium aluminide with precision to yield a net shape. The
from the designated alloy in their composition, after casting IHI Group has a history of achievement in the mass
these portions must be removed by some method, such as production of nickel alloy turbine blades using net shape
machining (cutting) or chemical removal. As discussed later, casting technology. In addition, IHI has accumulated a
the question of how to reduce the number of machining wealth of knowledge about casting titanium alloy parts.
steps after casting is an issue that must be faced in order to However, developing a precision casting process requires
achieve a practical titanium aluminide casting process. knowledge and know-how in not just metallurgy and
① Wax mold creation ② Wax mold assembly ③ Ceramic Shelling & Drying ④
Wa
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Technologies
Inquiries:
Research & Engineering Division,
Aero-Engine & Space Operations,
IHI Corporation
Phone: +81-42-568-7859
Website: www.ihi.co.jp/en/
Wax
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