The Design: Green
The Challenges: Dwindling Resources, Reduced Emissions, Energy Conservation
The Standards: ICAO CAEP, EU 5/6, CARB, CAFE, NOX & PM
The Stakes: Quality of Life, the Global Economy
The Answer: Precision Investment Casting
The Means: Hitchiners Exclusive Countergravity IC Processes
The Outcome: More Fuel-Efficient, Cleaner Power
Fuel-efficient, low-emissions technologies provide the single green path into the future for aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial gas turbine design. Global pressure for these technologies means you need high-performance, light-weight components made quickly, cost effectively, and in the right volume to keep your products in your customers supply chain. From design to application, Hitchiner-made parts meet the green challenge better, faster, and in the most optimal volumes than any other manufacturing method on the planet.
In the air and on the ground, Hitchiner's exclusive countergravity investment casting processes are uniquely qualified to take you farther and faster using less.
Unlike sheet metal fabrication and other methods, Hitchiners processes produce high-performance, light-weight, thin-wall parts with no design compromises. With walls as thin as 0.38 mm (0.015 inch) or as thick as 15.24 mm (6 inch), components can be cast to almost any shape and complexity of design in a wide range of stainless steel and reactive metal alloys, including titanium.
The result: Light-weight, strong components that function reliably and cleanly in the tortuous high-temperature environments of increasingly fuel-efficient aerospace, defense, automotive, and industrial gas turbine applications.
How Thin is Thin?
With walls as thin as 0.38 mm (0.015 inch), Hitchiner castings can be made to almost any shape and complexity in a wide range of stainless steel and reactive metal alloys, including titanium.
That's:
- Thinner than A credit card = 0.76 mm (0.0299 inch)
- Thinner than A human fingernail = 0.43 mm (0.017 inch)
- Thinner than 27 gauge stainless steel sheet metal = 0.4166 mm (0.0164 inch)
- As thin as Needed for cutting edges
- As thin as Cast-to-size bolting threads
- Almost as thin as A cats whisker (crystal radio) = 0.255 mm (0.01 inch)
Fast Fuel Facts
- Fuel economy improves 2% on average with every 45.36 kg (100 lb.) weight savings.
- Titanium alloys can weigh half as much as stainless steel per cubic inch with equivalent strength.
- Cast stainless steel or titanium alloy components perform at temperatures as high as 593 C (1100 F).
