Every time you fly, an extraordinary feat of endurance occurs inside the aircraft’s engines.
Hidden from view inside the sleek outer nacelle are hundreds of little turbine blades that can shrug off enormous mechanical stresses and temperatures exceeding 1,500C.
It is a true engineering marvel. And these hardy blades are not sculpted or cut from their material – they are grown.
During the 1960s, engineers worked out how to take a molten metal alloy, cast it into the shape of a turbine blade, and then cool it very carefully from one end to the other over a matter of hours. A single crystal or grain of metal alloy forms during this process of gradual, delicate solidification.
Like turning a cup of water into one big snowflake, of your own design, rather than a mini blizzard of many smaller snowflakes.
“It’s about as complicated as manufacturing gets,” says Ben Fifoot, manufacturing engineer at Rolls-Royce, which makes turbine blades in the UK. “It’s a real motivator to get out of bed in the morning.”
Only a handful of companies around the world can produce these single crystal turbine blades, and the process has been perfected end-to-end in just five countries, including the US and UK. Engine-makers continually vie for access to the technology.
Rolls-Royce, GE and France’s Safran are among the few firms that have perfected the process.
