Thread: Turbine Blades

It has come to my attention recently that gas turbine engines put a lot of stress on their blades. I hear that these blades are pretty tough and that they use a special process to make them. Has anybody ever worked with that steel before? Is it suitable for making knives or razors? Also, is there a good source for free time temp transformation tables? AKA isothermic tables?

yes a friend of mine has a hunting knife made out of this steel it will get sharp but not that sharp , i dont think that it would be a good razor , not for shure though try it on one and see how it comes out.

Where did he get it from? An airplane junk yard?

I am not sure but I thought that turbine blades were made out of an Aluminum Alloy. If this is the case I don't think they would make good razors.

bj

Some of them might be made out of aluminum, but it would make more sense to make them out of steel. But I'm not sure the process they use to 'grow' the blades would lend itself to working it into a different shape. I am also not sure that the mix used to make the steel would make for a good edge.

The original influence on the use of ATS-34 and 154CM were as steels that would handle the higher temperatures needed in aircraft turbine engines. They make fine blades.

Terry Knipshield has been working up some razors of CPM154 that are very nice. If the turbine blades are steel, they are likely something very similar. But, without engineering specs or some analysis of the material, you can't be sure.

I remember talking to an RAF engineer years back about this up at RAF Leuchars. He told me the blades are made out single crystal titanium.

They're made out of titanium for the weight and the heat resistance (they cool down fast), and they become single crystal by a succession of heating and slow cooling to remove the microscopic fault lines in the metal.

Jet engines rotate at up to 100,000rpm, so the centrifugal force on even the small blades can be up to 40 tonnes. If they werent single crystal they would fly apart under the pressure.

The compressor blades are also hollow and have small needle sized holes on the leading and trailing edge and air is pumped through the blades to keep them cool.

The large front fan on turbofan engines doesnt have hollow blades, but they take a stupid amount of force when the engine is running at take off speeds. I cant remeber what it was exactly, but it was over 100 tonnes of centrifugal force IIRC.

The blades in these engines get replaced pretty often as you can imagine!

EDIT: Just seen Tazz's post with the pictures of the blades. You can see the holes clearly in those pics!

Interesting thread, made me think about a steam turbine I saw at a natural gas power plant in the laydown yard. From what I remember though, i believe it was some sort of alloy as well. Maker was GE though. One of the turbines was damaged in shipping and GE brought some Korean (where it was made/put together) engineer to look it over. The ended up installing it and it didn't even make it thru start-up trials. Something about balance issues. That thing had some huge blades though,,,