3D Printed Two-Stage Compound Turbo Compressor

3D Printed Compound Turbo Compressor
Finally finished version 2 of my 3D Printed Turbo Compressor and it’s a 2 stage! Check it out and let me know if you have any questions. Again, not an expert on these, but this was a really fun project.
CAD is available from my github
github.com/indeterminatedesig...
#turbo #turbocharger #3dprint

[@Casey_Schmidt]

Very cool! I don’t blame you for setting this project aside after this. You sounded kinda burnt out to be honest. Regardless, this was still fun to learn about!

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Thanks. It was a lot more effort than I had anticipated but I learned a lot for future projects.

[@john_hawley]

main goal was the lessons we learned along the way!! AWESOME thanks for sharing your experience!

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bytesandbikes]

impressive given the constraints! Thanks for sharing

[@josipbalaban783]

Awesome video, looking forward to seeing what you try next

[@BudoReflex]

Magic smoke. My favourite. Well done, I had no idea a printed part could do this.

[@ErichHaubrich]

I hope you win the Powerball and start an R&D incubator. You are extremely knowledgeable and creative. Whatever you spent on education was an incredible bargain. I look forward to your TED Talk. Cheers!

[@CraigLandsberg-lk1ep]

You have the right idea and glad you made this video, but most turbos don't start making boost until 60,000rpm, but really good work 😀

[@iandrake4683]

Congrats on getting it up to that rpm without exploding!

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Thanks!

[@bluejayfabrications2216]

The rpm impressed me as well I would never thought you could get even 1 pound of pressure

[@NickM20985]

3D print layer lines are NOT air tight. You can fool with designs all day long, if you don't seal the layer lines with some super glue or epoxy, anything you print with exception of resin printing, will never hold pressure.

[@MrAndrius12]

Subscribed. KZbin needs more of this content

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Thanks! Yeah, it's a tricky thing getting enough speed and power to make actual boost. It would need a massive gear drive to get enough rpm or a seriously high power motor. I've printed out some roots charger impellers, but I haven't tried anything like designing a housing and drive system. It would be much easier to use rubber seals on, so it should make some pressure.

[@MrAndrius12]

@@IndeterminateDesign definitely. Some smaller wheels can have requirements as high as 200k rpm or so. Ah cool cool. I've seen a few videos on KZbin about roots blowers made via 3D printing that actually gave positive pressure, so seeing your videos, I think you definitely stand a chance at sorting out a roots blower that will work at least to a degree. The twin-screw is just far too complex in shape to try to "compensate" for the lack of tolerance control.

[@leventbiyikoglu4639]

sir I'm very glad that your compressor did not explode and you were not hurt, cause I've seen such videos on KZbin. High rpm on fdm printed parts is very dangerous in my opinion.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Several of them exploded actually. I found PLA+ or Nylon to be the best materials as they are much more flexible than normal PLA. I always wear safety glasses and I made the housings with a larger inlet to prevent shards from flying out.

[@EngineeringAfterHours]

Awesome video! The EDFs I use on my fan cars are limited to more like a 0.25 psi pressure drop. Any idea of the CFM going through it?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Thanks! I didn’t get to test the CFM under load, it’s close to 40cfm unrestricted. I’m surprised I thought EDFs would have a much higher pressure, but I suppose they’re optimized more for volume.

[@learnmakeforget7811]

respect!

[@CraigLandsberg-lk1ep]

What you really need to do to make this compound setup work is the same as any jet engine, your second turbo/ compressor needs to be half the size and spin quicker, because you have already shrunk the air. Look at any jet engine with multiple stages and the blades always get smaller because you 'are' shrinking the air😅

[@kiiiisu]

nice :D

[@letsdosomething6691]

1:37 I left a comment on your other video about the blade angles but it appears you already fixed that. I guess you could make it more drastic but I think your gains would be minimal if even there at all. Now the only problem seems to be clearance maybe. Try doing what rumba does with their fan blades. They attached the intake cone of the housing to the blades so the two spin together. By doing this they effectively took that gap and made it literally 0. It makes the blade much easier to manufacture and more efficient. The way they balance it is kinda cool too. They mold pegs on the outer edge and cut them off to balance it where needed. Again hope this helps and I can’t wait to see what you do next.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

That’s a cool idea. I played around with shrouded compressor designs like that. They’re tricky to remove the supports front but if I could get away with a smaller wheel it might work.

[@letsdosomething6691]

@@IndeterminateDesign ohhh that’s right, I didn’t even think about support material. Hmm. A smaller turbo would still be super cool if it works. I guess the only other idea I can think of is the widest compressor wheel at the base you can get away with without burning out the motor. My thought is a wider wheel will have more of a centrifugal force on the air. But like you said in your video the problems with this are inertia and an extended lever arm effect on the motor. But maybe a thinner disk could get away with it? Honestly whatever you come up with I’m totally exited to see. I love that you added ground effects to the high speed rc car. I haven’t watched the whole video yet but it sounds super cool.

[@ErichHaubrich]

I'm tempted to offer you one of my Solidworks seat licenses just to see what you can come up with. Dassault should just give you a license to promote what amazing things their software can do in the hands of a proper genius maker.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I really appreciate that. I’m tempted to switch to Solidworks, I saw they have a $99 hobbyist license now. Problem is I have so much in Fusion 360 right now.

[@adminadminov836]

Great! keep going in this direction! we needs an electric supercharger on a 3d printer!)

[@braziliansheetbox2497]

I think you need a lot more RPM to make boost without surge, those compressors use centrifugal forces to make boost and need 50k+ Just to start to made boost

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I totally agree. Someday if I try this again I will use a brushless motor so I have more power and the ability to run higher rpm. It’s amazing how much power even a small compressor needs.

[@CraigLandsberg-lk1ep]

Your wheel designs are great but they don't start working till 20psi +, steep blade angles are for high boost and need a lot more power and revs to push, you need to drop the blade angle from 60deg back to 30deg like most modern ball-bearing turbos made to work between 0-20 psi boost. I really hope my comments help because I also learnt from your video about how these wheels work at extremely low speed (sorry) 30,000rpm is idle speed for a car turbo. But you have run these 3D printed plastic wheels faster than anyone online and am glad to have seen this, most other people's setups exploded way before what you did😅 good work and I would love to see you try again sometime, cheers

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Yeah, the speeds are too low and the power required is too high. There’s another KZbinr making an electric supercharger and he’s using 30+ hp motors to make 20psi. I do want to try some small compressors with lower flow and much higher pressure ratios.

[@107caliboy]

In my industry we normally see is a motor driving a bull gear and pinion to rotate the impaler for each stage.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I really wanted to try that setup, I have a big motor that could easily drive all these. But in testing the 3d printed gears don’t hold up over 50k rpm. I maybe able to do it if I can print them out of more exotic materials like PEEk.

[@user-wl6tf8pr1y]

Hi, I would like to know what brand of 3D printer you use and how well it works

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I use a Creality Ender 3, but mine is highly modified. They’re the easiest printer to use but there is a lot of support for them in the community.

[@NamllehsYlimaf2]

Why are you not using brushless motors? Very cool by the way.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Brushless is the way to go, but I already had several 540 motors. You could certainly get a lot more power and higher rpm with a BLDC which is what this would really need if you wanted to produce more pressure.

[@NamllehsYlimaf2]

@@IndeterminateDesign this makes me want to give it a try. Never thought you'd be able to make that needle move with a 3dprinted compressor wheel. Truly amazing

[@chris4lyfe23]

Curious, do you think the housing would of survived 5-10 psi (assuming everything else was okay)?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Yes, I'm fairly certain the housings would have held that much. I can't crush them by hand. I was about concerned safety initially (Obviously I didn't need to be given the pressure I achieved), but it's also a fairly small volume of air so most likely if it did fail it wouldn't be an explosion or anything.

[@adminadminov836]

do you use an electric motor 550?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I used some 540 motors

[@adminadminov836]

7:15 pressure with the curtain fully closed?watched?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Yeah, just 1psi. Need a lot more RPM for these to work. I may try brushless motors someday. I have to leave the restrictor open a bit, just below where the compressor will surge. When the compressor surges the air flow stops and pressure drops to 0 because the compressor is just spinning the air around internally.

[@CraigLandsberg-lk1ep]

How did you balance the wheels?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I didn’t balance these wheels. It would probably help but they are so light. I’m working a a very small compressor for another project that rotate at 50k rpm and those do need balancing or they come apart.

[@jinwu3659]

I was trying to download the files for the V2 turbo compressor but there is only one file on the Github. Do you think you could upload the STL files for this design. I'd really like to try and print this compressor. I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

[@IndeterminateDesign]

I've added the 3MF which will include all the parts and can be opened by any slicer program. You will most likely need the original *.step file as you will need to make edits to fit the tolerances of your particular printer. I recommend using something like Autodesk Fusion 360 personal which is free or FreeCAD which will allow you to open and edit the step file.

[@jinwu3659]

Thank you sir! I’m using shapr3d with a qidi ifast. I’m as new as the machine, just starting to learn. I was wondering if possible I like to lean from you. Is there any way I could reach out to you directly? Thank you and I would greatly appreciate it!

[@multimargejta123]

What motors are you using?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Just some old 540 brushed motors.

[@bringtheideas460]

It can be 3d printed and have usefull performance, but it must be smaller and resin printed. Smaler=stiffer+less of a challenge.

[@youngplayboy786]

SolidWork ? or fusion 360 ?

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Fusion 360

[@oscarvillalta7645]

I'm not an engineer so please take this with a grain of salt. Would more rpm create more pressure? centrifugal superchargers and turbos spin really fast. about 50k rpm = 5 lbs of boost with an appropriate sized compressor to given displacement. perhaps gearing down the motors may be the way to go as long there is enough torque to move all that air.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

More RPM should create more pressure as long as the flow is within the range the compressor is designed to work. I’m likely not reaching the speed this compressor wheel needs and I have far too large of tolerances. My blade to housing clearance is around 1mm, and the real turbos I measured were are ~0.2mm. So I’m loosing most of my pressure to leakage. I think machining the blades after they are 3D printed might get them closer.

[@oscarvillalta7645]

@@IndeterminateDesign interesting. could that be as simple as sanding the outside down to match the necessary clearance? in your opinion, would something like a carbon seal such as those those found in rotary engines be an option to close that gap? I'm bringing this up because the plastic will expand as the compressor wheel spins faster, not sure by how much. wider clearence may be beneficial for this specific material. a carbon seal would degrade over time if it comes in contact with the expanding blade and help dissipate the heat a little. I'm not an engineer though so idk lol

[@hunnybunnysheavymetalmusic6542]

This is why I used titanium.

[@Andrew_Custodes]

you need a receiver

[@radicalphil1871]

I absolutely love your video! You show all you've got and even the build doesn't work that well and still you show everything! Fails are the best way to learn! Awesome work because your design is great! Still: I have great results just playing around with blower fans. They're easy to design in every software, very easy to print and blow a lot of air. To accomplish more pressure I'll print some multistage ones with more complexity. But still: blower fans are THE way to go when FDM-printing. Since I also need medium pressure air flow for my part cooling fan of a high speed 3D-printer I'll search for better ways to achieve this. One is the following video and print: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZPRf2CcZ6Zpo8U

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Thanks! I had a feeling that FDM 3D printing wasn't going to cut it, especially without a lot more power. Thanks for the link. That blower fan style compressor is really awesome. I need to make one of those. I have some more project ideas if I can find a compressor that will pull a decent vacuum.

[@creepyloner1979]

impellers aren't "turbos" or turbines. they're the opposite of turbines.

[@IndeterminateDesign]

Technically it's a centrifugal compressor but no one ever searches for a centrifugal compressor. They are in a lot of gas processing plants, but they're much more efficient in larger sizes.