# Redesign of a Flange Wheel Used in an Airplane for Composite Manufacturing Made with a Mold with Removable Inserts Manufactured by Means of 3D Printing: A Comparison with the Current Conventional Alternative, a Turbine Wheel Machined out of Aluminum

## TL;DR

This paper describes replacing an aluminum turbine wheel in an airplane with a lighter, more efficient thermoplastic composite flange wheel made using 3D-printed mold inserts.

## Contribution

The novel use of 3D-printed removable mold inserts to produce a thermoplastic flange wheel, enabling weight reduction and efficiency gains in aircraft.

## Key findings

- The thermoplastic flange wheel achieves weight reduction and improved turbine efficiency.
- 3D printing enables the production of complex mold inserts for thermoplastic parts.
- Tomography validation confirmed the feasibility and performance of the redesigned component.

## Abstract

This work presents the redesign of an aircraft aluminum turbine wheel into a thermoplastic composite flange wheel with the support of 3D printing technology, which increases the turbine efficiency thanks to the introduction of the flange geometry, not possible with the current machined aluminum part. This work seeks the reduction of the aircraft’s structural weight by replacing metallic components with thermoplastic alternatives and proves the feasibility of producing a complex geometry product through injection molding, paving the way for manufacturing intricate designs using removable inserts created via 3D printing. This work has been developed within the INN-PAEK project of the H2020-CLEAN SKY 2 program. The thermoplastic component is produced using an innovative process that employs removable inserts in the mold, and its development has followed following three steps: redesign of aluminum part according to functional and plastic materials requirements, design of the mold, and validation of real plastic parts by means of tomography. This paper highlights highly positive results for the project, influenced by the new plastic flange wheel’s ability to achieve both weight reduction and an overall efficiency enhancement that decreases the aircraft’s kerosene consumption, and proves that 3D printing is a highly potential technology for complex thermoplastic part tooling production.