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Aeroengine casings are some of the highest value components within the modern gas turbine, since their complex geometries and exotic materials lead to significant manufacturing challenges. The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) has helped Rolls-Royce to overcome these challenges by developing a novel optimised manufacturing approach for aeroengine casings. This has led to substantial economic impact on Rolls-Royce as the manufacturing time for these components has reduced by up to [text removed for publication] saving more than [text removed for publication] since 2008. [text removed for publication]
SNA Europe is an international company employing 2,500 people in 20 countries. The Unit's research on the mechanics of metal removal and coating techniques had an impact on the company's product design, product performance and the manufacturing process. The benefits to SNA Europe since 2008 include:
Rolls-Royce has been able to reduce manufacturing scrap rates significantly, better control the single crystal growth process for nickel superalloy blades and more confidently understand production issues in Ti blades. The lower bound saving for the Imperial contribution to the work is estimated at £100M p.a. This has contributed to the production of a jet engine with better fuel efficiency, increased cost effectiveness due to lower scrap rate and improved time on wing for fleets in service.
Jet engine modifications account for over half the fuel efficiency improvements in modern aircraft, with the industry accounting for a large share of UK visible exports. Improvements in gas turbine technology offer jet fuel (cost and CO2) savings and support UK employment. Titanium alloys in the cooler sections and nickel alloys in the hot sections are the subject of this case study.
The engines consist of Ti or Ni alloy discs attached to a series of shafts which are turned by aerofoils (blades) in the gas stream. Incoming air is accelerated by the fan section then compressed, mixed with fuel and burned, with the energy then being extracted by the turbine. Turbine blades operate in a gas stream at 1800+ K, 200 K greater than the alloy melting point, and extract up to 700 kW per blade to power the fan and compressor. Each disc holds around 60 blades, with around 9 turbine stages in a large engine. In titanium, failure of a fan blade or multiple blades is extremely costly (£5M per event) and of course poses safety issues. Research in the Department has focussed on a) predicting the microstructure of nickel superalloys and b) understanding defect formation in titanium and superalloys.
Research into vibration damping has had a major economic and operational impact on Rolls- Royce resulting in a new design for [text removed for publication] engines used on [text removed for publication] wide body airliners. This has saved [text removed for publication] engine refit costs. The team has also designed a particle damper to reduce vibrations and significantly increase the life of the fuel system [text removed for publication].
The UltraMill machine was developed at Brunel University in 2008, in collaboration with Ultra Precision Motion (UPM) Ltd, to help support UK and European manufacturing SMEs in high value manufacturing sectors, particularly in ultra-precision and micro manufacturing. The machine has a novel design and the sub-systems and machine elements have a number of technological innovations. Two international patents have been granted to protect the IP within the machine. A surface roughness of 4-6 nm was micro-milled on non-ferrous metal components by the UltraMill in 2008, which at the time was the finest engineering surface achieved by ultra-precision micro-milling in the world.
A licence agreement was signed with ITP Group (UK) in 2012 for the commercial production of the UltraMill. This was ITP's first entry into the high-precision milling market. ITP realigned their production systems to begin manufacturing the UltraMill in late 2012 and have manufactured 3 machines to date.
Contour Fine Tooling, which leads the worldwide market in the field of diamond cutting tools, was inspired by the UltraMill, and developed the first diamond micro-milling tool in the world. The UltraMill was used to test the tool's capabilities and feasibility; the new tool has since been successfully sold. It is now being used to manufacture a number of high-value products. In particular it is used by Apple to produce the bevelled edges of the iPhone 5S. Apple currently manufactures 150,000 iPhone 5S units per day.
The University was the first adopter of the Direct Metal Laser Sintering/Melting (DMLS/M) technology in the UK resulting in significant research and knowledge transfer activities in the UK and globally. The University has and continues to be a catalyst in technology introduction for 5 out of the 10 UK companies that use this technology. This accounts for £2.5M of capital investment within the UK and is currently the largest concentration of this technology worldwide. Research has involved process optimisation, analytical simulation, materials development (including MMCs) with UK and international partners. Application research engagement has been in Automotive (including F1), Aerospace, Medical and Jewellery sectors.
Research by the University of Huddersfield has produced an in-depth understanding of the factors that contribute to machine tool inaccuracy. This has led to predictive methods for assessing the capability of machines to produce specific components and the development of a low-cost electronic compensation system that can increase machine tool accuracy by a factor of 10, with significant cost savings for factory temperature control. A contract has been signed to market this system globally. Rapid calibration techniques have been developed, in collaboration with a UK world-leading aerospace manufacturer, reducing timescales from days to less than one hour.
Research in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield on dynamic performance and vibration serviceability has contributed to internationally applied guidance on building serviceability for floors, buildings, stadia and other structures and has led to the spin-out Full Scale Dynamics Ltd (FSDL). Based on our research FSDL provides applied research and consultancy services, and has delivered projects approaching £1m since 2008. FSDL has demonstrated significant reach through its work with blue chip clients nationally and internationally. Our research has impacted on leading national sport infrastructure (such as Premiership Football stadia and notably the Olympic 2012 Velodrome) and public companies to deliver economic benefits by providing evidence based compliance, demonstrating that stadia, hospitals, manufacturing plants and other public structures comply with safety and vibration serviceability standards. Interventions based on our research and implemented via FSDL have, on numerous occasions, avoided potentially serious economic and safety consequences due to the poor vibration performance of structures.