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Tube Products International October 2012
products & developments
High precision tubes in space
plane pre-cooler tests
At the Farnborough Airshow earlier
this year, Reaction Engines announced
that its revolutionary Skylon space
plane has passed another significant
milestone following the second phase
of successful tests on the Sabre engine
pre-cooler.
The high precision heat exchanger
tubes manufactured by Fine Tubes are
a key component to the cooling system
of this hybrid engine, which is on course
to transform not only space travel but
also air transport around the world.
The Sabre engine, developed by
Reaction Engines and a team of over
30 British engineers, has the ability to
operate as a jet and rocket engine.
This hybrid function will be capable of
propelling the Skylon space plane at
up to five times the speed of sound,
allowing a new generation of aircraft to
fly to any destination on Earth within
four hours or, when in rocket-mode,
directly into space at twenty five times
the speed of sound.
With the second series of testing,
Reaction Engines has proven the
pre-cooler’s aerodynamic stability
and uniformity, its structural integrity,
freedom of vibration across a wide range
above and beyond the flight envelope
as well as preliminary cryogenic cooling.
Critical to the performance of the Sabre
engine is a heat exchange system that
cools air for the engine intake.
This technology will chill incoming hot
air from over +1,000°C to -150°C in less
than 1/100
th
of a second, enabling the
space plane to effectively double the
current limits of jet engine speeds.
Fine Tubes’ team of engineers and
metallurgy experts in Plymouth, UK, has
been instrumental in developing crucial
tubes for the pre-cooler system and has
worked in partnership with Reaction
Engines to come up with a breakthrough
in aerospace heat exchanger design.
“Like the Sabre engine itself, the
tubing in its heat exchanger is an
engineering marvel,” explained Alan
Bond, corporate programmes director
for Reaction Engines. “There are a few
other companies which produce the
kind of high technology tube we need
but the Fine Tubes product is extremely
high quality, meeting all the project
specifications. We are very pleased with
its performance.”
Each engine uses over 2,000km of
tubing, which has to be extremely thin
to minimise weight and to act effectively
as a heat exchanger, but also very
strong because of the heat, pressure
and forces involved.
Fine Tubes specially designed a high
pressure tube made from Inconel, a
nickel alloy that is very resistant to
temperature and well suited for use in
extreme conditions.
The high specification tubes for this
pre-cooler system have an outside
diameter of less than a millimetre and
a wall thickness of just 40 microns,
whilst maintaining structural integrity at
extreme conditions.
UK science minister David Willetts
recognised the significance of the
Skylon development when he visited
the Farnborough International Air
show: “The engine being developed by
Reaction Engines is a potential game-
changer in terms of space technology.
This successful testing validates the
assessment made of the engine concept
by the UK Space Agency back in 2010
and is yet another example of the UK’s
world class space industry. It would be
a fantastic achievement if we could one
day use this home-grown technology for
our own commercial space launches.”
Fine Tubes has a fully integrated facility
for the manufacture and research and
development of high quality precision
tubes in seamless, welded, and welded
and drawn forms.
The company is a leading manufacturer
of high precision tubes in stainless steel,
nickel, titanium and zirconium alloys,
and the standards and specifications
for these tubes and coils are extremely
high, aimed at applications in the most
hostile operating environments.
Fine Tubes Ltd
– UK
The groundbreaking Skylon space plane
Heat exchanger tubes with 40-micron wall
thickness from Fine Tubes
