Titanium aluminide turbochargers - improved fuel economy, reduced emissions (Additive Manufacturing)
Acronym: TiAlCharger
Funding body: European Commission
Status: Completed
The technologies behind our innovations are electron beam melting (EB melting) and electron beam brazing (EB brazing). The EB melting process has the potential to fabricate a turbocharger wheel from successive layers of powder allowing a hollow, lightweight, low-inertia rotor wheel to be formed. The TiAl wheel will be joined to the steel shaft using the EB brazing process, the challenge being to create a joint between dissimilar materials that is robust enough to withstand vibrations, high temperatures and rotational speeds present in a turbocharger unit. This fabrication method provides the possibility to manufacture turbocharger wheels from TiAl, which (if of the required quality) retains its strength at high temperatures, expanding the usage of turbochargers to a broad range of engine types.