Composite blade made by additive manufacturing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9816381-B2
Application number	US-201414471520-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2014
Priority date	Aug 28, 2013
Publication date	Nov 14, 2017
Grant date	Nov 14, 2017

Abstract

The present application relates to a blade of low pressure rectifier axial turbomachine. The blade can also be a rotor blade and/or a turbine blade. The blade includes a composite material with a matrix and a reinforcement that includes a mesh forming a three dimensional structure with a plurality of rods that describe a three-dimensional mesh based on polyhedrons. The three-dimensional structure extends over the majority of the thickness of the blade between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface and/or the majority of the length of the blade between the leading edge and the trailing edge. The rods of the reinforcement are bonded to each other and are distributed throughout the volume between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface of the blade. The rods form a three-dimensional mesh occupying the entire blade. The present application also relates to an iterative method for manufacturing a blade by additional layer manufacturing.

First claim

I claim:

1. A blade for a turbomachine, comprising:
a leading edge;
a trailing edge;
a pressure side surface; and
a suction side surface;
wherein the pressure side surface and the suction side surface extend from the leading edge to the trailing edge;
wherein the blade is formed from a composite material having a matrix and a reinforcement having a mesh; and
wherein the mesh forms a three-dimensional structure which extends over the majority of the thickness of the blade between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface and/or the majority of the length of the blade between the leading edge and the trailing edge,
said three-dimensional structure including a grainy surface with protruding grains embedded in the matrix.

2. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the three-dimensional reinforcement structure is a unitary structure with rods interconnected with material continuity by connecting nodes.

3. The blade according to claim 2 , wherein the rods are oriented in at least three non-coplanar directions.

4. The blade according to claim 2 , wherein the rods are oriented in at least four non-coplanar directions.

5. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcement occupies more than 60% of the thickness of the blade between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface.

6. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcement occupies more than 80% of the thickness of the blade between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface.

7. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the volume density of the mesh between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface varies along the height of the blade and/or from the leading edge to the trailing edge.

8. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the reinforcement comprises: one or more walls forming the leading edge and/or trailing edge, and/or the pressure side surface and/or the suction side surface of the blade, the one or more walls being unitary with the mesh.

9. The blade according to claim 1 , wherein the matrix and the reinforcement are made of different materials, the matrix comprising:
a thermoplastic resin; and
the reinforcement comprising:
a metal.

10. The blade according to claim 9 , wherein the metal is titanium.

11. The blade according to claim 9 , wherein the reinforcement is integral and made by a method of additive layer manufacturing exhibiting layers.

12. The blade according to claim 2 , wherein the roughness Ra of the rods is one of the following:
greater than 2 μm;
greater than 10 μm; and
greater than 50 μm.

13. The blade according to claim 11 , wherein the thickness of the layers is one of the following:
less than 200 μm;
less than 50 μm; and
less than 10 μm.

14. The blade according to claim 11 , wherein a majority of the rods are inclined relative to the layers by one of the following:
more than 5°; and
more than 15°.

15. The blade according to claim 11 , wherein the layers are stacked in a stacking direction and the rods are inclined predominantly relative to the stacking direction by one of the following:
more than 10°; and
more than 20°.

16. A blade for a turbomachine, comprising:
a leading edge;
a trailing edge;
a pressure side surface; and
a suction side surface;
wherein the pressure side surface and the suction side surface extend from the leading edge to the trailing edge;
wherein said blade comprises from a composite material having a matrix and a reinforcement having a mesh; and
wherein said mesh is formed by rods with a roughness Ra which is one of the following:
greater than 2 μm;
greater than 10 μm; and
greater than 50 μm.

17. The blade according to claim 16 , wherein the rods forms a three-dimensional structure which extends over the majority of the thickness of the blade between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface.

18. The blade according to claim 16 , wherein the rods forms a three-dimensional structure which extends over the majority of the length of the blade between the leading edge and the trailing edge.

19. A blade for a turbomachine, comprising a solid body with:
a leading edge;
a trailing edge;
a pressure side surface; and
a suction side surface;
wherein the pressure side surface and the suction side surface extend from the leading edge to the trailing edge;
wherein said solid body is formed from a composite material having a matrix and a reinforcement having a mesh; and
wherein the mesh forms a three-dimensional structure with rods which extends over the majority of the thickness of the solid body between the pressure side surface and the suction side surface and/or the majority of the length of the solid body between the leading edge and the trailing edge,
said rods including a grainy surface with cavities filled by the matrix.

20. The blade according to claim 19 , wherein the rods and the matrix extend over the majority of the volume of said blade.

Assignees

• Techspace Aero Sa
• Safran Aero Boosters Sa

Inventors

• Cortequisse Jean-François

Classifications

• B22F10/28

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

• B22F3/1055

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B29K2505/08

  Transition metals · CPC title

• F01D5/282 Primary

  Selecting composite materials, e.g. blades with reinforcing filaments · CPC title

• B22F5/04

  of turbine blades · CPC title