Innovative High-performance Ceramics – Challenge for the Life Cycle Engineering of Turbomachinery

Producers of turbomachines for the aviation and energy sectors have to meet the future challenges regarding environment protection, resource conservation and profitability. As part of the 2014 market and trend analysis on the subject of Life Cycle Engineering for turbomachinery, the market potential of the concept of Life Cycle Engineering for turbomachines as well as future trends and R&D issues have been identified. It has shown that the mechanical, chemical and thermodynamic characteristics of high-performance ceramics motivate new developments of Life Cycle Engineering in turbomachinery. However, particular material properties like high hardness and strength represent a challenge for the machining process of complex components made from high-performance ceramics. Since process and machining technologies are key components of the LCE concept, this paper will focus on the importance of a holistic hard machining of ceramic matrix composites with regard to technical and economic criteria.