Reinforced vacuum system component
The invention provides a rotor assembly for a vacuum pump. The rotor assembly comprises a hub and one or more rotor blade arrays each comprising at least one rotor blade, each rotor blade extending from a rotor blade root contiguous with the hub to a rotor blade tip, wherein each rotor blade comprises a continuous fibre reinforced matrix material. The invention further provides methods of designing and manufacturing rotor blades, and vacuum systems comprising a component comprising a continuous fibre reinforced matrix material.
1. A rotor assembly for a vacuum pump, the rotor assembly comprising a hub and one or more rotor blade arrays each comprising at least one rotor blade extending from a rotor blade root contiguous with the hub to a rotor blade tip, wherein the rotor blade comprises a plurality of printed planar layers wherein at least one of the printed planar layers comprises a planar continuous fibre layer comprising a continuous fibre having a length of at least 0.5 meters that extends from said rotor blade to a portion of the hub immediately adjacent said rotor blade within a plane.
2. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of printed planar layers further comprises a printed polymer matrix layer.
3. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , comprising a plurality of rotor blade arrays.
4. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the rotor blade root and/or the rotor blade tip have a higher tensile strength and/or a higher flexural strength and/or higher creep resistance than the remainder of the blade.
5. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of printed planar layers forms part of the hub.
6. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the planar continuous fibre layer is formed of fused filaments.
7. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the planar continuous fibre layer is formed of fused composite filaments and is fused to a planar layer of fused filaments.
8. The rotor assembly according to claim 7 , wherein the planar layer of fused filaments is printed.
9. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the continuous fibre is selected from the group consisting of carbon fibre, glass fibre, aramid fibre, metallic fibre, and/or combinations thereof.
10. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of planar layers comprises a metallic matrix.
11. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of planar layers comprises a polymer matrix and the polymer is selected from the group consisting of a thermoset, a thermoplastic, an elastomer, and combinations thereof.
12. The rotor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein each rotor blade comprises a lattice core.
13. The rotor assembly according to claim 12 , wherein an outer sheet fully encloses the lattice core.
14. The rotor assembly according to claim 13 , wherein the sheet and lattice core are a unitary structure.
15. A method of manufacturing a rotor blade assembly of a vacuum pump, each rotor blade assembly comprising at least one rotor blade extending from a rotor blade root contiguous with a hub to a rotor blade tip, the method comprising the steps of fusing a continuous composite filament to form a planar layer containing a continuous fibre and fusing a matrix filament to form a planar layer of matrix material wherein the planar layer containing the continuous fibre defines a part of a rotor blade and a part of the hub such that the continuous fibre extends from the rotor blade to a portion of the hub immediately adjacent the rotor blade root.