A new superalloy designed specifically for 3D printing can now survive jet engine temperatures above 1000°C, and this project will turn it into working turbine components. Current additive manufacturing cannot match the heat resistance of conventionally cast superalloys, limiting its use in aerospace. This alloy, ABD®-1000AM, was computationally designed from scratch to solve that problem. The project will push it from lab-scale demonstration to manufacturing readiness, targeting a 0.25% reduction in specific fuel consumption through redesigned combustor tiles that exploit both the alloy’s creep resistance and the geometric freedom of 3D printing. If successful, the technology could cut fuel burn and emissions from jet engines while making supply chains more resilient—components can be printed on demand rather than cast in dedicated foundries. The project also tackles a practical barrier: coating the complex internal cooling channels that 3D printing makes possible, which standard coating methods cannot reach. Cranfield University will develop a new environmental protection system for these intricate geometries. Alloyed projects potential component sales of roughly £330 million by 2033.
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Additive manufacture (AM) has significant and recognized potential to enhance the efficiency of aircraft and support the development of new net-zero systems through its scope for complex shapes and the integration of previously separate components and systems. Furthermore, AM has the potential to reduce material wastage through near net-shape manufacture and to consolidate aircraft supply chains to be increasingly resilient to disruption and responsive to rapid iterations and development. Currently, AM's potential to deliver these benefits to the aerospace industry is limited by its inability to reproduce the temperature performance of the best conventionally manufactured alloys. In particular, the highly creep- and oxidation- resistant superalloys used at service temperatures \>1000°C. Alloyed has used its computational Alloys-by-Design (ABD(r)) platform, developed at the University of Oxford, to develop superalloys bottom-up. ABD(r)-1000AM, has the highest maximum operating temperature of any AM superalloy and its lower-TRL composition-design stages have already been developed through a NATEP programme. In this Project Alloyed, ITP and Cranfield will work to accelerate adoption of ABD(r)-1000AM within aerospace by advancing the Manufacturing Readiness Level of ABD(r)-1000AM components from MRL4 to MRL6 (equivalent to TRL3 to TRL5) through the completion of three core technical work packages (WP2-WP4). In WP2 Alloyed will focus on increasing the productivity of the AM process and establishing high levels of process control, taking ITP's guidance on requirements for aerospace components. In WP3, ITP will design a next generation combustor tile making use of ABD(r)-1000AM's enhanced creep-resistance combined with the design freedom of AM, targeting \>0.25% reduction in SFC. Alloyed will fabricate ITP's combustor tile along with other demonstrator turbine components. In WP4 ITP and Cranfield will investigate environmental coatings for ABD(r)-1000AM. ITP will investigate performance of its current SOA combustor tile coating. Cranfield University's world-leading coatings group will lead on developing a novel environmental protection system for ABD(r)-1000AM, with a particular focus on addressing surface preparation and processing challenges often faced when coating the unique geometries produced by AM, such as complex internal cooling channels. Cranfield's new coating system, as-well-as providing environmental protection, can be used as a bond-coat should the component need further thermal protection from a thermal barrier coating system. A successful project will enable Alloyed to transfer the ABD(r)-1000AM technology into aerospace applications with potential component sales of c.£330m by 2033 and provide ITP with materials and manufacturing technology to deliver next generation combustion tiles which enable significant increases in jet turbine efficiency.
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