Manufacturing Engineering

Utilizing the correct balance of design, materials, and processes is critical in achieving the required quality and cost of a finished product. Barber-Nichols’ team of Manufacturing Engineers have extensive experience taking new designs into production. We will incorporate our industry leading knowledge and expertise into a Design for Manufacturing project tailored to your budget and schedule.

Barber-Nichols takes an iterative approach to manufacturing engineering, with level of effort driven by cost, quality, and risk mitigation.

Design for Manufacturing Process Map

• These turbine generators were used in telecommunication applications to maintain power in the event of grid failure. Numerous units were to be built, which offered cost savings opportunities.
• The turbine wheel, the most complex component to manufacture, achieved near net-shape from a metal injection molding process. This reduced component cost and manufacturing time by several orders of magnitude for the turbine wheel, resulting in a notable cost reduction of the full assembly.

• A supercomputer cooling application required many high-performance fans in order to extract the heat generated by the processor cores.
• Precision airfoils and flow path required to achieve low noise and power efficiency
• Injection molded plastic parts were selected to reduce cost, production time, and weight while maintaining close tolerances needed for efficient operation

• First models were fully machined from stainless steel and aluminum
• The motor controller enclosure was replaced with a drawn aluminum can
• Impeller housing and diffuser, complex shapes requiring 5-axis milling, were replaced with castings
• A carbon-filled plastic stator can was used. This can isolates the motor from the process gas and water condensate typically found in fuel cell anode gas. The use of carbon-filled plastic also provides zero eddy current losses.

• Barber-Nichols machining expertise includes electro-chemical machining (ECM), a net-shape process.
• Turbine design not constrained to milling tool sizes and deflection
• Accurate reproduction of turbine blade shapes and other fine features with tight spacing
• No wear of the machine tool

Turbine Blades