BRENDAN SOBIE / SINGAPORE
Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) plans to test micro spark coating (MSC) on a General Electric CF34 test engine as part of an effort to sell the technology to major aero-engine manufacturers.
IHI dispatched a team led by its chief engineer to Cincinnati, Ohio, last month to brief GE on MSC, a metal coating and build-up technique that could replace conventional welding. IHI says GE has agreed to apply MSC to components on a CF34 test engine. After running MSC for 3,000 cycles between April and July 2004, GE and IHI will evaluate the results and decide whether to apply MSC to compressor and turbine parts on production CF34s.
IHI believes MSC could prove a lower-cost and higher-quality method for joining engine components.
IHI already had plans to test MSC this year on two military engines - its own XF7 and GE's F110.
IHI produces low-pressure turbine blades for the CF34-8, but hopes MSC can also be applied to CF34 components manufactured by Snecma and MTU. IHI also has ambitions to sell technology licences for engines manufactured by Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. "We don't have the ability to produce all the blades of the world's engines, so we'd like to sell the technology to competitors as well," says IHI.
MSC is applied through a micro-pulse electric discharge generated by an electrode made of sintered powder. The discharge energy melts the electrode and the part's surface. Melted powder falls onto the pool of melted metal at the surface, resulting in a strong bond between the part and the coating.
Source: Flight International
