Turbine Housing
Turbine housings are manufactured in various grades of spheroidal graphite iron to deal with thermal fatigue and wheel burst containment. As with the impeller, profile machining to suit turbine blade shape is carefully controlled for optimum performance.
The turbine housing inlet flange acts as the reference point for fixing turbocharger position relative to its installation. It is normally the load bearing interface.
Wheel
The Turbine Wheel is housed in the turbine casing and is connected to a shaft that in turn rotates the compressor wheel.
Compressor Cover
Compressor housings are also made in cast aluminium. Various grades are used to suit the application. Both gravity die and sand casting techniques are used. Profile machining to match the developed compressor blade shape is important to achieve performance consistency.
Compressor Wheel (Impellor)
Compressor impellers are produced using a variant of the aluminium investment casting process.
A rubber former is made to replicate the impeller around which a casting mould is created. The rubber former can then be extracted from the mould into which the metal is poured. Accurate blade sections and profiles are important in achieving compressor performance. Back face profile machining optimises impeller stress conditions. Boring to tight tolerance and burnishing assist balancing and fatigue resistance. The impeller is located on the shaft assembly using a threaded nut.
Bearing Housing
A grey cast iron bearing housing provides locations for a fully floating bearing system for the shaft, turbine and compressor which can rotate at speeds up to 170,000 rev/min. Shell moulding is used to provide positional accuracy of critical features of the housing such as the shaft bearing and seal locations. CNC machinery mills, turns, drills and taps housing faces and connections. The bore is finish honed to meet stringent roundness, straightness and surface finish specifications.
Bearing Systems
The bearing system has to withstand high temperatures, hot shut down, soot loading in the oil, contaminants, oil additives, dry starts.
Journal bearings are manufactured from specially developed bronze or brass bearing alloys. The manufacturing process is designed to create geometric tolerances and surface finishes to suit very high speed operation.
Hardened steel thrust collars and oil slingers are manufactured to strict tolerances using lapping. End thrust is absorbed in a bronze hydrodynamic thrust bearing located at the compressor end of the shaft assembly. Careful sizing provides adequate load bearing capacity without excessive losses.
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