Net shape Hot Isostatic Pressing project targets large aerospace engine components
September 7, 2016
It was decided by the consortium that for the final full scale demonstrator, a large 1.5m IN718 engine casing should be manufactured through the NSHIP process
The Nesmonic project, formed under the Clean Sky Joint Undertaking with partners from CEIT in Spain, The University of Birmingham, UK, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, UK, began in 2013 to look at the manufacturing of components from IN718 using Net Shape Hot Isostatic Pressing of powder (NSHIP). The project concluded this year and the results show significant advantages to using this method for the production of complex high performance aerospace parts.
To exploit this technology a number of challenges had to be addressed, including the difficulty in HIPing nickel super alloy powder, the high cost of sacrificial tooling, diffused surface layer on components due to interaction with the tool material and finally the lack of credible performance information for IN718 parts produced using the NSHIP process.
Trials were performed to determine the best powder and HIPing conditions to use to produce parts with the desired microstructure and properties. Novel low cost tooling methods were developed and surface engineering techniques, to eliminate tool/component interaction, explored. A computation model of IN718 powder consolidation was used to calculate the correct tool geometry to enable “right-first-time” net shape parts to be produced.
On conclusion of the project the researchers reported that an 80% reduction in aerospace material consumption (nickel alloys) and the elimination of swarf disposal and recycling costs is achievable using NSHIP. Also, the manufacturing process allows for a 75% reduction in energy consumption as a result of reducing energy-intensive machining operations.
The process has the ability to manufacture complex components which will provide the essential high pressure and temperature capability critical to achieve the required reductions in fuel burn in large civil aero-engines. There is also a huge improvement in engine emissions to be gained with the use of hotter engine cycles enabled by employing high performance nickel alloys that will help the aerospace industry achieve tough ACARE targets such as a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions per passenger-kilometre by 2020.
