TURBINE.
cast, HIPed, balanced
The turbine wheel is the hardest part in a microjet: red hot, spinning at 60,000 rpm, and pulling on its own blades with tonnes of centrifugal force. A single axial stage extracts the power that drives the compressor. It is an integrally bladed disc (blisk) investment-cast in a nickel superalloy, so there are no blade roots to fail.
No fir-tree roots. Blades and disc are one casting, then HIPed to close every pore.
Key numbers
- Stages
- 1 × axial
- Construction
- Integral blisk
- Balance grade
- ISO 21940 G2.5
- Overspeed test
- 120 % of max rpm
- Material
- Inconel 713C, vacuum cast
Materials
Inconel 713C
The classic cast microturbine alloy: creep strength and castability.
MAR-M247
Higher-temperature option for growth versions of the engine.
How it is produced
Designed by Vector Dynamics, produced by qualified manufacturing partners to our drawings.
- 01
Printed pattern
Castable resin or wax pattern made on a high-resolution printer, no tooling.
- 02
Ceramic shell
Pattern dipped and stuccoed into a ceramic shell, then burned out.
- 03
Vacuum investment casting
Superalloy poured under vacuum to avoid oxides and inclusions.
- 04
HIP
Hot isostatic pressing closes shrinkage porosity inside the disc.
- 05
Machining & balancing
Bore, faces and tip turned; two-plane dynamic balancing to G2.5.
and then we check it
- X-ray / CT for porosity
- FPI on every blade
- Spin test at 120 % overspeed
supply enquiries welcome.
Want the VD-100?
UAV and target-drone makers, manufacturing partners and investors: talk to us about the VD-100.