Pay tribute to the scientific researchers: the discovery of super metal, advanced weapons rely on it

As we all know, rare earth has always been China’s national defense strategic armament material. At the same time, due to its irreplaceable role in national defense and military weapons and equipment, and its reserves are extremely low, all countries are making long-term reserves.

At present, the advanced weapons and equipment of western countries are extremely dependent on China’s rare earth materials. The United States, in particular, relies almost entirely on imports from China. Of course, in addition to the military field, these materials are also used in smart phones, global positioning systems, automotive electronic components, computers, computer screens and other consumer goods.

However, in addition to rare earth, another metal is more scarce than rare earth and is very important for military and aviation fields. On September 3, 2017, the global military network reported an article entitled “heavy weight! China has discovered super metals! Aircraft and rockets depend on it! One gram is worth 300 yuan”. The article reported that for a long time, the aviation engine has been a short board of China’s aviation industry.

At present, some military aircraft in China have to use foreign engines. In order to make up for this shortcoming as soon as possible, the state has been increasing the research and development of aero engines.

Today, the aviation industry continues to make efforts and is constantly narrowing the gap with the world-class engines. It is reported that in Hebei Langfang science and Technology Park, an aeroengine designed for UAV and business aircraft has completed 150 hours of test run and can be tested at different heights. That is to say, this engine has been basically finalized. It is really gratifying!

Aero engine is one of the most complex and multidisciplinary integrated engineering machinery systems in the world. It needs to work under the harsh conditions of high temperature, high pressure, high speed and high load, and meet many very demanding and even contradictory requirements such as high power, light weight, high reliability, good safety and long service life. Therefore, aero engine is known as the “crown” of modern industry. Although China is one of the few countries in the world that can independently develop aero-engine, the performance of aero-engine is not up to standard, which has always been a worry of the Chinese aviation industry.

During the 13th Five Year Plan period, China launched major special projects for aero engines and gas turbines, and the aviation industry continued to make efforts to continuously narrow the gap with world-class engine manufacturers.

Xu Gang, the actual person in the light power Laboratory of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: the fuel consumption rate and service life of this turbofan engine have reached the international advanced level, which is also a blank in China. All parts are designed and produced independently, especially the high-temperature single-crystal turbine blades inside. In fact, it can be said that the difficulties in the processing of the engine.

Single crystal blade is the first key part of aero-engine products, which is located in the place with the highest temperature, the most complex stress and the worst environment. Its casting process directly determines the performance of aero-engine.

In the center of this 1000 kg thrust engine, the core component is the 60 single crystal blades in front of us. The engine compresses the air and then presses it into the combustion chamber. It burns violently with the fuel in a limited space, generating a violent gas jet, which drives the blades to rotate at high speed, so that the seemingly thin parts burst out amazing power. The horsepower output of each blade is equivalent to that of a 2.0 displacement SUV.

The single crystal blade is known as the “pearl on the crown”. It has been regarded as the first key part of aviation products, and its casting process directly determines the performance of the engine. However, the casting of single-crystal blades is inevitably inseparable from a special metal rhenium.

Rhenium has a melting point of 3180 ℃, no brittle critical transition temperature, and has good creep resistance under high temperature and extremely cold and hot conditions. Rhenium is an indispensable strategic resource for aerospace industry production, ranging from turbine blades and exhaust nozzles to aero-engine and rocket shells.

Its content in the earth’s crust is smaller than all rare earth elements, and it is more difficult to obtain than diamonds. According to the report of the US Geological Survey, the proven rhenium reserves in the world are only about 2500 tons, while the rhenium reserves in the Huanglongpu molybdenum mining area in Luonan County, Shaanxi Province are 176 tons, accounting for only 7% of the global proven reserves. Nickel base superalloy containing rhenium can effectively improve the properties and service life of single crystal blades.

However, rhenium ore is mainly distributed in America and Europe, and most of its mining and sales are monopolized and controlled by the United States. However, some time ago, the US aviation and space technology Weekly reported that China would soon mass produce more excellent aero engines. This trend was exposed because it was reported that China is buying a large amount of rhenium in the market because it can improve the heat resistance of turbine blades, and some of the demand will probably be used for reserves.

According to the article, people can see the reason why Chinese people buy rhenium from the global rhenium consumption pattern: about 80% of rhenium in the world is used to produce aircraft engines. And the improved superalloys will almost certainly be used in fighter engines. For this reason, the West began to worry that once China applied this metal to the military aircraft field, it was very likely to break the long-standing monopoly of the West on this technology, especially the United States.

Therefore, in order to maintain its dominant position in the aviation industry, the United States and some other western countries have imposed material and technology blockades on China for many years. The more the blockade is, the more it shows its strategic importance, and the more we need to break through it.

Finally, with the national overseas high-level talent introduction plan and the strong support of the government, China has been able to produce single-crystal turbine blades for Aeroengines that meet the European and American industry standards. The “stubborn disease” of domestic aeroengines that do not meet the performance standards can finally be eradicated, and the history of military Aeroengines being controlled by people for a long time will also be ended. China cannot always work for the west, nor can it always be in a backward state!

Therefore, we must pay tribute to the scientific researchers of the motherland!