Francis VerSnyder

Francis Louis VerSnyder (born May 27, 1925 in Utica (New York) , † November 28, 1989 ) was an American engineer and metallurgist. He is known for developing DS (Directional Solidification) turbine blades and single-crystal turbine blades for jet turbines. He was an engineer at Pratt & Whitney (later part of United Technologies Corporation ).

VerSnyder grew up in Watertown, New York , and went to school there. From 1943 to 1945 he was a soldier in the 54th Infantry Division in Europe and received high awards, including the Purple Heart with oak leaves. He then studied with a GI Bill Metallurgy at the University of Notre Dame and, after graduating in 1950, went to the aircraft engine department of General Electric in Lynn, Massachusetts . From 1955 to 1961 he was in General Electric's main research laboratory in Schenectady. He then moved to Pratt & Whitney and became the head of a working group to look for new alloys for the turbine blades in the jet turbines (the refractory alloy used nickel) in a long-term program. When the cast metal cools, small crystal grains form and weak points in the turbine blades are grain boundaries that run transversely from one side of the turbine blade to the other. The aim of the working group was initially to let the grain boundaries grow in the longitudinal direction of the turbine blades, which was achieved by heating the edges except at the turbine blade tip (Directional Solidified Blades, DS).

The technology was first used in the F 111 fighter aircraft, then from the 1970s also in other Pratt & Whitney jet engines (Boeing 747, DC 10, F 15, F 16). DS turbine blades were subsequently also used by the competing engine manufacturers General Electric and Rolls-Royce.

Finally, a place of his team members, Steven Copley, that by using a spiral mold ( pig tail , pig's tail called because of its shape) were the long-sought single-crystal turbine blades produced (without grain boundaries in the interior). Their invention revolutionized aircraft construction. The turbines could now operate at 35 to 65 degrees Celsius higher temperatures. At the same time, a new alloy adapted to the changed operating conditions was developed (with 10% chromium, 5% cobalt, 4% tungsten, 1.5% titanium, 5% aluminum, 12% tantalum). At the end of the 1970s, single crystal turbine blades replaced the DS technology in the 747 and other passenger aircraft such as the Airbus A 310 followed.

Most recently, he was Deputy Director of Materials Science Research at United Technologies.

In 1954 he received the Henry Marion Howe Medal from ASM for research into the microstructure of high-temperature alloys. In 1965 he received the George Meade Medal from United Technologies, in 1973 the Clamer Award from the Franklin Institute and in 1975 the ASM Engineering Achievement Award.

In 1972 he received the Dickson Prize in Science . In 1986 he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation . In 1981 he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering .

literature

• Charles R. Simcoe: The History of Metals in America, ASM International 2018, p. 178f

Web links

• Obituary at the National Academy of Engineering by Maurice E. Shank