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Journal Article

Novel Method for Casting High Quality Aluminum Turbocharger Impellers

2010-04-12
2010-01-0655
A turbocharger essentially consists of a turbine and an impeller wheel connected on a common shaft. The turbocharger converts waste energy from the exhaust into compressed air, which is pushed into an engine to produce more power and torque, as well as improving the overall efficiency of the combustion process. The compression ratio for modern diesel engines can be up to 5:1, which can be only achieved using a complex impeller design and very high rotation speeds (up to 150,000 rpm for small impellers). The complex geometry and very high running speeds of impellers creates high stresses at locations such as blade roots and around the bore, and so impellers normally fail from fatigue. Therefore, it is vital to minimize defects while fabricating turbocharger impellers. Current methods for producing aluminum turbocharger impellers are plaster casting or by forging + machining. However, both of these current methods have serious drawbacks.
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