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Rolls-Royce Makes OC Innovation Hub for Aircraft Components

London-based aircraft engines maker Rolls-Royce Group PLC will make Orange County a hub for the development of the ceramic matrix composites—or CMCs—that are expected to play a crucial role in the company’s product lines going forward.

Rolls-Royce has $19.5 billion in annual sales and competes with GE Aircraft Engines and others to supply The Boeing Co., Airbus SA and other makers of commercial jets. It staked a claim in OC earlier this year when it bought CMC specialist Hyper-Therm High Temperature Composites Inc. in Huntington Beach on undisclosed terms.

“All future Rolls-Royce engines could use CMC technology,” said Andrew Lazur, general manager of what is now called Rolls-Royce High Temperature Composites Inc. “Innovations developed by Hyper-Therm HTC, combined with global experience within Rolls-Royce worldwide, will benefit future generations of our engines in multiple power markets.”

Hyper-Therm HTC was founded in 1992 and had 15 workers at a 12,000-square-foot plant on Gothard Street at the time of its sale. It is getting a name change to Rolls-Royce High Temperature Composites Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce North America.

It is the only California operation for Rolls-Royce besides an engine repair center in Oakland.

Founder

Hyper-Therm HTC was founded in 1992 by entrepreneur Wayne Steffier to develop the rising potential of CMCs for aerospace and defense. The engineering veteran had experience with Boeing Defense and Northrop Aircraft in the development, analytical design, test, and manufacturing of CMC materials and structures.

Hyper-Therm HTC became a leading producer of CMCs, contracting with NASA, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy for the research and production of parts for turbine engines, hypersonic vehicle structures, rocket propulsion and advanced nuclear reactor research.

Steffier remains involved as technical consultant to Rolls-Royce, which sees the Huntington Beach operation’s expertise in CMCs offering advantages beyond its commercial aerospace business, Lazur said, with potential for applications in the company’s civil and defense aerospace, and marine and energy market power systems.

Rolls-Royce had been a long-standing customer of Hyper-Therm’s technology for CMCs.

CMCs are increasingly being used in new aircraft engines due primarily to their lower weight and higher heat resistance compared with nickel super alloys and other metals they are displacing.

Lighter

They weigh about one-third as much, which helps reduce fuel consumption and bring down operational costs for aircraft.

CMCs also offer higher heat resistance and can withstand operating temperatures up to 2,192 F. The higher heat resistance allows an aircraft engine to run hotter and more efficiently, meaning less energy is required for generation of compressed air, which is used for cooling engine components.

Rolls-Royce is currently using CMCs for nozzle guide vanes blades and combustor liners in the hottest sections of gas turbine engines.

“We expect ceramic matrix composites will find applications in a broad range of our future power systems,” said Lazur, who joined Rolls-Royce in 2010 and worked closely with Hyper-Therm HTC before the acquisition.

Rolls-Royce’s first focus has been incorporating CMC engine components into its most advanced engines, such as future variants of its Trent XWB, Lazur said.


Trent XWB

The Trent XWB version that will power the A350-800 and A350-900 variants was awarded its ticket-to-fly in February, with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification.

The A350 family is Airbus’ new composites-intensive midsize, long-range aircraft conceived as a competitor to Boeing’s 787. Rolls-Royce plans to incorporate CMCs in a future, higher-thrust version of the Trent XWB that is under development for the A350-1000.

Rolls-Royce Group separated its car division in 1973, naming it Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd.

Cars

That unit and its famous double R trademark were acquired in a bidding war for about $712 million in 1998 by German automaker Volkswagen Group, which then agreed to split the company with rival BMW AG.

BMW, as part of the agreement, took complete control of Rolls-Royce naming and production rights in 2003, while Volkswagen assumed the same rights on Bentley models.

Donna Dawson is a freelance writer based in Newport Beach.

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