Session: 24-02 Additive Manufacturing Applications in Engines

Paper Number: 151411

Redesign of a Gas Turbine Nozzle for Additive Manufacturing 

One of the most innovative technologies of the last thirty years is undoubtedly Additive Manufacturing (AM). This new manufacturing technique has allowed engineers to rethink and create things that wouldn’t be feasible with standard production methods, thanks to its working principle. AM is particularly appealing to industries that require the manufacture of complex and/or light-weight structures; for this reason, it is widely adopted in the aerospace, automotive and medical industries. Additionally, AM is used by large energy companies as an alternative to Investment Casting (IC) in the spare parts supply chain. Maintaining an efficient supply chain for older machines, some of which are dated back to the 1960s and are still operating worldwide, can be challenging. It can be very expensive to maintain a supply chain based on IC, as the casting tools age and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce and qualify new ones. On the other hand, AM allows multiple components for different machines to be manufactured simultaneously with the same printing machine and sometimes the costs can be equal to or even lower than those made by IC. This paper shows the redesign of a PGT5A nozzle made by AM as an alternative to the one made by IC focusing on all the design improvements developed to meet the life requirements.

Presenting Author: Andrea Fardelli Baker Hughes

Presenting Author Biography: He is a Gas Turbine Design Engineer with a four years work experience in Baker Hughes. He graduated in Aeronautical Engineering at La Sapienza University of Rome. As an engineer one of its passion is Additive Manufacturing, during the last three years he has been involved in several projects and has written multiple papers regarding this matter. This is the third year that participate at the Turbo Expo and second year as a presenter.

Authors:

Andrea Fardelli Baker Hughes
Pancrazio Abate Baker Hughes
Luciano Coniglio Baker Hughes
Filippo Ceccanti Baker Hughes
Daniele Benericetti Baker Hughes
Simone Colantoni Baker Hughes