Currently, there are only two business enterprises in China that produce ceramic cores for aircraft engines, with one named Xinghua Xingdong Cast Steel, based in Xinghua city in East China's Jiangsu province.
Air-cooled hollow blades are the core components in their engines and the manufacturing cost accounts for about 25-30 percent of the engine. The key technology for blade manufacturing lies in casting the ceramic core of the blades.
In the manufacturing process, traditional forging methods can't form complex blade cavity shapes and the investment casting process can only be adopted.
To match the production of ceramic cores, the company established a special research and industrialization facility. It is now equipped with three core production lines, capable of producing 200,000 cores annually.
In recent years, the company has continued to innovate and optimize the formulation and preparation technology of core materials, meeting the exacting needs of domestic aviation engine R&D and production.
"Nowadays, no matter how complex the blade core is, as long as our client provides the mold, our company can manufacture it," said Sun Ge, retired senior engineer of domestic aviation engines and hired by Xinghua Xingdong Cast Steel to specialize in the R&D of ceramic core preparations.
In 2021, the company made a big move into the new field of ceramic cores. With a planned investment of 500 million yuan ($69.70 million), it erected a plant for high-power chip packaging silicon nitride ceramic substrates.
The product will be directly applied to semiconductor chip substrates, with the factory building covering an area of over 50 mu (3.33 hectares) now having been completed.
An exterior view of Xinghua Xingdong Cast Steel. [Photo/WeChat account: xinghuafabu]