Impeller and method for producing such an impeller

Abstract

An impeller includes a central, shaft or a tube for mounting on a shaft, a hollow hub is located around the shaft or tube, and a series of blades are attached to the outside of the hub by their bases. A reinforcing rib is provided for each blade, and extends on the shaft or tube in a radial direction and forms a facial connection between the shaft or tube and the inside of the hub at a position opposite the attachment of the base of a blade concerned.

Claims

1. An impeller comprising: a central shaft or a central tube for mounting on the central shaft; a hub provided around the central shaft or the central tube, the hub having a hollow space with an outside and an inside, with the inside of the hub being oriented towards the central shaft or the central tube; a series of blades that are attached to the outside of the hub by respective bases of each of the blades, wherein for each of the blades, or at least some of the blades, a reinforcing rib is provided that extends from the central shaft or the central tube in a radial direction and forms a radial connection between the central shaft or the central tube and the inside of the hub at a position opposite to an attachment of the base of the blade, wherein each of the reinforcing ribs respectively include a head at a location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub, and the respective bases of each of the blades include a footprint, the footprint being defined by an area at a location of attachment of the base of the blade to the outside of the hub, and the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub is located within the footprint, and wherein a center line of the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub for each of the reinforcing ribs is shifted within the footprint such that the center line of the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub for each of the reinforcing ribs is offset from a center line of the footprint.

2. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein for each of the blades, the reinforcing rib is provided.

3. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein each of the reinforcing ribs extends over an entire length of the respective base of the corresponding blade.

4. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein the location of attachment of the reinforcing ribs located within the footprint is shifted in a direction of rotation of the impeller.

5. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein the impeller is a centrifugal impeller whose hub increases in diameter in an axial direction from a first end to a second end, wherein a back wall is provided at the second end, the back wall having a surface transverse to the central shaft or the central tube such that the back wall at least partially closes off the hollow space of the hub, and wherein each of the reinforcing ribs are directly connected to the back wall.

6. The impeller according to claim 5, wherein a thickness of the back wall increases in the radial direction towards the central shaft or the central tube.

7. The impeller according to claim 5, wherein a thickness of the hub increases in the axial direction towards the back wall.

8. The impeller according to claim 5, wherein a thickness of each of the reinforcing ribs increases towards the connection to the back wall.

9. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein the central shaft or the central tube is provided with holes that form a connection between the hollow space of the hub and a surrounding of the impeller.

10. The impeller according to claim 9, wherein the holes in the central shaft or the central tube are sealed.

11. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein a shroud is provided around the hub, the shroud connecting the blades together at heads of the blades.

12. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein attaching portions provided between the reinforcing ribs and a remaining portion of the impeller are rounded.

13. A method for producing an impeller, the method comprising: providing a central shaft or a central tube; providing a back wall on the central shaft or the central tube; providing a hub having a hollow space with blades attached to an outside of the hub by respective bases of each of the blades; providing a reinforcing rib on the central shaft or the central tube for each blade or for at least a number of the blades, wherein the reinforcing ribs on the central shaft or the central tube extend in a radial direction and form a radial connection between the central shaft or the central tube and an inside of the hub at a place opposite to an attachment of the base of the corresponding blade, wherein each of the reinforcing ribs is provided such that the reinforcing rib includes a head at a location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub, and the respective bases of each of the blades include footprint, the footprint being defined by an area at a location of attachment of the base of the blade to the outside of the hub, and the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub is located within the footprint, and a center line of the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub for each of the reinforcing ribs is shifted within the footprint such that the center line of the head at the location of attachment of the reinforcing rib on the inside of the hub for each of the reinforcing ribs is offset from a center line of the footprint.

14. The A method according to claim 13, wherein steps of the method are implemented by means of an additive production method.

15. The A method according to claim 14, wherein the steps of the method comprises fusing powder material by laser or by focusing an electron beam.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the fusion of the powder material comprises at least partly melting or sintering the powder material.

17. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein the location of attachment of the reinforcing ribs located within the footprint is shifted slightly sideways with respect to the center line of the footprint of the corresponding blade in a direction against a direction of rotation of the impeller.

18. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the reinforcing ribs increases towards the central shaft or the central tube.

19. The impeller according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of each of the reinforcing ribs is provided as a thickness gradient such that a uniform stress distribution in the impeller is obtained.

20. The impeller according to claim 1, further comprising a solid ring at an end of the hub where the impeller is balanced by local removal of material from the solid ring.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) With the intention of better showing the characteristics of the invention, a preferred embodiment of an impeller according to the invention and a method for producing such an impeller are described hereinafter by way of an example, without any limiting nature, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

(2) FIG. 1 schematically shows a perspective view of an impeller according to the invention, with partial omission of a sector;

(3) FIG. 2 shows another perspective view of the impeller of FIG. 1, but with a stepped omission of a sector;

(4) FIG. 3 shows another perspective view of a truncated section of an impeller according to the invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a cross-section along the curved line IV-IV in FIG. 1;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a variant of an impeller according to FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS EMBODIMENTS

(7) The impeller 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 is an impeller of a centrifugal compressor element by way of an example.

(8) The impeller 1 comprises a central tube 2 with which the impeller 1 can be mounted on a shaft, not shown in the drawings, in order to be driven around the geometric centreline X-X′ of the tube in the housing of the compressor element.

(9) A radially extending back wall 4 is provided on the tube 2 close to one end 3, that in the case of the example shown is essentially disc shaped.

(10) On one side of the back wall 4 the impeller 1 comprises a hollow trumpet-shaped hub 5 extending around the tube 2, that connects to the back wall 4 by its end 6 with the largest diameter, and connects to the other end 8 of the tube 2 by its other end 7 with the smallest diameter.

(11) The outside surface 9 of the hub 5 changes in a sloping way from an essentially axial direction X-X′ at the end 7 to an essentially radial direction at the end 6.

(12) A hollow space 10 is enclosed between the hub 5, the tube 2 and the back wall 4.

(13) In a known way the hub 5 is provided with a series of curved blades 11 that are attached by their bases 12 to the hub 5.

(14) In the example shown, two series of blades are provided, i.e. main blades 11a on the one hand, that extend over a certain length from the axially oriented end 7 of the hub 5 to the radially oriented end 6 of the hub 5, and ‘splitter blades’ 11b on the other hand, that extend between the main blades 11a over a shorter length, starting at an axial distance from the end 7 of the hub 5 to the end 6 of the hub 5.

(15) However, the invention is not limited to two series of blades 11, but is also applicable to any number of series of blades 11, whereby for example no splitter blades 11b are present or on the contrary a number of series of splitter blades 11b can be provided.

(16) According to the invention, in the hollow space 10 of the hub 5 reinforcing ribs 13 are provided, of which the number is preferably equal to the number of blades 11, whereby a reinforcing rib 13 is provided for each blade 11 that extends in a radial direction with respect to the tube 2 in line with the base 12 of the blade 11 concerned.

(17) The reinforcing ribs 13 form a connection between the inside 14 of the hub 5 and the tube 2, whereby the reinforcing ribs 13 are connected by their bases 15 to the tube 2 and connected by their heads 16 to the inside of the hub 5 at a place opposite the attachment of the base 12 of a corresponding blade 11, more specifically within the outline of the footprint 17 of a corresponding blade 11 on the inside 14 of the hub 5 and over substantially the entire length of this footprint, as shown in the cross-section along the head 16 of a reinforcing rib 13 in FIG. 4.

(18) Preferably the aforementioned location of attachment of the heads 16 of the reinforcing ribs 13 within the footprint 17 of a corresponding blade 11 is shifted slightly sideways with the direction of rotation A for which the impeller is intended, as shown in FIG. 4.

(19) The reinforcing ribs 13 are preferably also connected to the back wall 4 along an edge 18 over their height.

(20) As the reinforcing ribs 13 are radially oriented, they are aligned with the centrifugal forces that occur and they limit the deformations of the hub 5 in the radial direction.

(21) The reinforcing ribs 13 are primarily under a tensile load, whereby the entire mass of the reinforcing ribs 13 is used to divert a part of the stresses from the hub 5 to the tube 52 and also to the back wall 4 if necessary, and there is thus no, or practically no, dead mass, in other words unloaded mass, in the hollow space 10 of the hub 5 that does not contribute to the strength of the impeller in the radial direction.

(22) The foregoing does not in any way presume that the thickness of the reinforcing ribs 13 must correspond to the thickness of the blades 11. In reality the thickness of the reinforcing ribs 13 can vary over the length and height of the reinforcing ribs 13, given that in zones at a greater radial distance from the tube 2 the hub 5 is exposed to greater centrifugal forces than in zones at a shorter distance, and as a result these zones are subject to greater deformations and stresses.

(23) Through a suitable choice of thickness gradient it is possible to obtain a practically uniform stress distribution in the impeller 1.

(24) Preferably the thickness of the hub 5 increases in the axial direction from the end 7 with the smallest diameter to the end 6 with the largest diameter, and has a thickening at the level of the connection to the back wall 4.

(25) Preferably the thickness of the back wall 4 increases in the radial direction towards the connection with the tube 2.

(26) The thickness of the reinforcing ribs preferably increases towards the connection with the back wall 4 and/or towards the connection with the tube 2.

(27) The connections between the reinforcing ribs 13 and the rest of the impeller 1 are preferably rounded to prevent stress concentrations.

(28) It should be noted that the aforementioned thickness gradients of the hub 5, of the back wall 4, of the tube 2 and of the reinforcing ribs 13 do not necessarily have to be applied together, but each can also be applied separately or in combination to an impeller 1.

(29) In the event of a small number of blades 11 it is not excluded providing interjacent reinforcing ribs, not shown in the drawings, between the reinforcing ribs 13 that extend radially in line with the blades 11.

(30) As a result the hub can be made thinner than without these interjacent reinforcing ribs.

(31) The thickness of the interjacent reinforcing ribs can be different to the thickness of the reinforcing ribs 13 in line with the blades 11.

(32) The number of reinforcing ribs 13 is preferably a whole multiple of the number of blades 11.

(33) As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 the impeller 1 can be provided with a solid ring 19 at the end 7 of the hub 5 to be able to balance the impeller 1 by locally removing material from the ring 19, for example by drilling holes.

(34) An impeller according to the invention as described above is preferably produced by applying an additive production method whereby materials are joined together to make objects on the basis of a digital 3D model, whereby the object is generally built-up layer by layer, which is in contrast to the subtractive production methods with the removal of material as described in the standard ASTM F2792-12a.

(35) Additive production refers to a category of production methods, for example powder bed fusion whereby thermal energy is utilised to selectively enable certain regions in a powder bed to fuse together, or by direct energy deposition whereby beamed thermal energy is used to let materials melt while they are deposited.

(36) Within the category of powder bed fusion there are a number of technologies such as electron beam melting, whereby powder material is melted by using an electron beam; selective laser melting whereby powder material is melted by means of a laser, selective laser sintering whereby powder material is sintered by using a laser. The category of direct energy deposition includes the technology of laser cladding.

(37) For the production of an impeller according to the invention, a metal or ceramic material, or a polymer or a fibre-reinforced polymer or any combination of these materials can be used.

(38) The method according to the invention can comprise the step of providing holes 20 in the tube 2 that form a connection between the hollow space 10 of the hub 5 and the surroundings with the aim of being able to evacuate surplus non-molten powder from the space 10.

(39) The holes 20 are preferably provided at the front end 8 of the tube 2, in other words at the end 8 that is furthest away from the back wall 4.

(40) After removing the surplus powder or other material, these holes can be sealed.

(41) In the event of the removal of powder not being required, for example in the event of laser cladding, the holes 20 in the tube 2 can be omitted.

(42) The type of reinforcing ribs 13 presented is also applicable to an impeller 1 whereby a shroud 21 is provided around the hub 5 with blades 11 that connects the blades 11 together at their tops, as shown in FIG. 5.

(43) It is clear that instead of a tube 2, a solid shaft can also be used, provided with holes or otherwise for removing powder from the space 10.

(44) The present invention is by no means limited to the embodiment of an impeller described as an example and shown in the drawings, but such an impeller and a method for producing such an impeller can be realised according to different variants without departing from the scope of the invention.