KW Micro Power has reported significant weight reductions after redesigning an aerospace-grade turbogenerator using nTopology’s software platform and VELO3D’s metal additive manufacturing technology.
Based in Florida, KW Micro Power is a small manufacturer of high powder density Auxiliary Power Units (APU) for commercial aviation and military applications. It teamed up with the engineers at nTopology and VELO3D to develop a generator housing for an airborne microturbine that is 44% lighter and printed as a single component with conformal cooling channels.
The housing initially weighed 10.4kg and was made up of multiple CNC machined parts that were later assembled. KW Micro Power was concerned not only with the weight of the airborne component, but also that the alignment of the parts upon assembly could hinder the housing’s reliability when the engine was spinning at up to 90,000 rpm.
Using nTopology’s nTop platform, the partners tackled these issues by first using the software’s integrated static and modal analysis simulation tools to confirm the loads of the housing were relatively small, and then removing unnecessary material to create a hollow shell with a variable wall thickness. The removing of material from the design model is said to have taken 100 milliseconds, while also allowing the engineers to improve the thermal management of the housing by converting the empty shell into conformal cooling channels.