Sometimes, technical progress strongly relies on contributions which are completely unexpected at a first glance. For example, people are fascinated by the superb Airbus A380 airplane, particularly due to its gigantic size, its passenger capacity and its comfort. However, taking a closer look, it becomes evident that materials and manufacturing techniques are the real “miracles” that are covered behind this new aircraft. Novel materials, such as composites and new metallic materials, their fabrication technologies and innovative parts production technologies contribute largely to the success of the enormous engineering challenge of a megaliner aircraft.

Fostered by the aerospace industry, a new class of lightweight alloys has been developed over the last two decades which can sustain temperatures beyond 600°C at only half the weight of steel or nickelbase alloys.

These so-called gamma titanium aluminides have proven to meet the requirements for automotive combustion engines as well as for aeroengines, and can be used in gas turbines for power generation. In recent years, different components such as turbocharger wheels, valves or compressor and turbine airfoils made out of gamma titanium aluminides have been successfully developed on a small series or demonstrator scale and have shown major performance benefits.

Today, cost issues as well as the unavailability of a processing chain are major hurdles for mass production of parts. Recently though, the European aeroengine industry was strongly spurred to speed up the implementation process of gamma titanium aluminides by global competitors.

For certain applications, the limited immunity of gamma titanium aluminides against oxidation, wear, erosion and particle impact makes their use challenging. Obviously, the full potential of these innovative materials can only be reached if measures are taken to minimize the degradation imposed by these types of attack. The INNOVATIAL project has addressed in particular the need of these materials for coatings that can enhance both their performance and durability in aggressive environments.

The down-selected coatings developed in the project have proven superior performance relative to any other attempt for protection of titanium aluminides so far, even at the high temperature end at 1000°C. At the same time, the revolutionary novel coating deposition process called HIPIMS (high power impulse magnetron sputtering) is being further developed within the project, enabling fabrication of unique coating architectures and properties.

In addition to the development of protective coatings for titanium aluminides, the INNOVATIAL project has successfully developed coatings for tools suitable to machine difficult to machine aerospace and automotive materials. Performance of the new tool coatings was outstanding even under harsh cutting conditions.

Within 54 months of extensive research and development, the INNOVATIAL consortium has come up with many important successes in the fields of new coatings, nanomaterials, processing technologies and characterization techniques. Some of the coatings developed within the project will be available on the market soon. The novel HIPIMS deposition technique applied to coating manufacture in this project has now made its way into industrial application in various areas of production within and beyond the focus of the INNOVATIAL project. Therefore, this project is a perfect example of European collaborative research and development that strengthens Europe’s leadership in high technology fields to serve society and the environment.

The extraordinary results obtained by INNOVATIAL coatings contribute greatly to the enhancement of Europe’s leadership in the field of innovative light-weight materials for a wide range of high-tech applications. While aerospace, automotive and energy industries are the pacemakers in this project, it can be expected that other industries will pick up the materials and technologies developed quickly.

A full report of the project (PDF, 1.2MB) can be downloaded for more information.