Conventional rotational molding process and aerodynamic characteristics of an axial-flow hollow blades rotor

In this work, the rotational molding process is developed to manufacture in one piece an axial-flow turbomachine rotor with hollow blades. Giving to our knowledge, this process has never been employed in the making of these turbomachine components. Indeed, the blades of these rotors are typically solid blades and are making by injection molding, machining, or thermoforming. The effects of three relevant factors of the rotational molding process are studied here: oven temperature, time of heating, and cooling rate. The cooling of the moving mold is managed by simple convection-of-air, or by convection-of-air charged with water particles. For the oven temperature of 285 °C, hollow-blades rotors of good quality are gotten in 12 min per cycle. In addition, aerodynamic characteristics of one rotational molded rotor are compared to those of another part machined in aluminum piece. Characteristics of this aluminum rigid-rotor are assumed as reference.