MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Currently, Russian manufacturers "grow" turbine blades for gas turbine engines from special powder instead of cutting them from a hunk of metal, thus reducing the production period from six months to just ten days, President of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Centre (NRC) Mikhail Kovalchuk said.
"Our country is one of five in the world to have full-cycle jet engine production. One of the most critical components is the turbine blade, which operates at extremely high speeds and temperatures. Currently, the blades for our jet engines are being ‘grown’ by the dozens, cutting production times from six months to ten days," he said during a session of the Presidential Council for Science and Education, chaired by President Vladimir Putin.
"We used to cut the pieces from a huge chunk of metal. Now, they are grown from powder with 30-micron particles," Kovalchuk added.