High Durability, Light Weight Bearings for Small Turbine Engines

Innovative, durable, high performance, oil free rotor bearing technologies for small turbine engines could reduce cost and improve reliability of propulsion systems for unmanned aerial vehicles. Xdot has developed a compliant foil bearing design that is ideally suited to meet the needs of this challenging application. This bearing design was specifically selected to provide state of the art performance using a configuration that can be produced in volume and at a price point that meets the needs of a broad variety of small, high speed turbomachinery.For this SBIR effort, Xdot Engineering and Analysis is proposing to accelerate the development of this foil bearing configuration to make it ready for low-risk, cost and schedule effective insertion into small oil-free gas turbine engines. The Phase I effort focuses on two key areas of Xdots technology portfolio: identification and validation of alternatives to PS304/PS400 coatings, and high speed validation testing of a new thrust bearing configuration. Phase II will focus on bearing optimization and application risk reduction. The overall goal is to be ready for demonstration of a foil bearing supported small gas turbine engine using production ready foil bearings before the end of the Phase II effort.