Method for manufacturing an impeller of a rotary machine and an impeller manufactured using such a method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11111800-B2
Application number	US-201815994063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2018
Priority date	Jun 30, 2017
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

A method for manufacturing an impeller of a rotary machine, the impeller including at least one vane limiting an inner channel, which is at least partly closed, the method includes successively manufactured the impeller of several material layers by a build-up process from a powder. The powder is applied in each case to a processing plane for the production of each material layer, and then a solid material layer is produced from the powder by a selective energy input, and structural orientation is determined for the impeller, according to which the impeller is built up in layers, and the structural orientation is defined by a first and a second angle, which angles describe the relative position of the impeller to the processing plane.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing an impeller of a rotary machine, the impeller comprising at least one vane limiting an inner channel which is at least partly closed, the method comprising:
successively manufacturing the impeller from several material layers by a build-up process from a powder, by applying the powder in each case to a processing plane for the production of each material layer;
producing a material layer from the powder by a selective energy input; and
determining a structural orientation for the impeller, according to which the impeller is built up in layers, the structural orientation being defined by only a first angle and a second angle, the first and second angles defining the relative position of the impeller to the processing plane.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising producing support structures from the powder together with the material layers by the build-up process, removing the support structures after completion of the build-up process and optimizing the first and the second angle, so that the support structures are minimized.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first angle indicates the angle between an axis of rotation of the impeller to be manufactured and a w-axis, the w-axis being perpendicular to the processing plane and pointing in a direction of the build-up process.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the first angle and the second angle define the relative position of a component coordinate system to a processing coordinate system, the component coordinate system being fixed with respect to the impeller and the processing coordinate system being fixed with respect to the processing plane, the component coordinate system having a z-axis, the z-axis being defined by the axis of rotation of the impeller, and an x-axis, the x-axis being defined by a connecting line, the connecting line being perpendicular to the z-axis and connecting the z-axis with a trailing edge of the vane, and the processing coordinate system comprises u-v-plane, which is defined by the processing plane, and the w-axis, which is perpendicular to the u-v-plane and points in the direction of the build-up process.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the structural orientation is defined relative to an initial orientation, wherein, when in the initial orientation the z-axis coincides with the w-axis and the x-axis lies in the u-v-plane.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising first rotating the component coordinate system by the first angle about the x-axis starting from the initial orientation, and then rotating the component coordinate system by the second angle about the z-axis to realize the structural orientation.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one vane includes a plurality of vanes and the inner channel is one of a plurality of inner channels, and adjacent channels are each separated by a respective vane.

8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising optimizing the first angle and the second angle, so that support structures are avoided in areas of each inner channel of the plurality of inner channels, which are not or only with difficulty accessible for removal of the support structures.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first angle is at least 70° and at most 90.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second angle is at most as large as the quotient of 360° and the number of vanes.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second angle is at least 50° and at most 60.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the impeller has exactly five or exactly six vanes.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the build-up process includes an energy input carried out by a laser.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the build-up process is carried out by selective laser melting.

15. An impeller for a rotary machine, comprising: the impeller manufactured by the method according to claim 1 .

16. The impeller according to claim 15 , wherein the impeller is for a pump, a turbine, a compressor, a compactor or an expander.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first angle is at least 75° and at most 85°.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first angle is about 80°.

19. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second angle is about 54°.

Assignees

• Sulzer Management Ag

Inventors

• RETTBERG Robin
• Löffel Kaspar
• Ess JONAS
• Huber Marc
• Hartmann Martin

Classifications

• F01D5/34 Primary

  Rotor-blade aggregates of unitary construction {, e.g. formed of sheet laminae; (discs formed of sheet laminae F01D5/028; ceramic materials F01D5/284, composite materials F01D5/282)} · CPC title

• B22F10/43

  characterised by material · CPC title

• B22F10/385

  Overhang structures · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• B22F5/009 Primary

  of turbine components other than turbine blades (of turbine blades B22F5/04) · CPC title