At 20:43 on November 3rd, China `s largest new-generation carrier rocket with the largest carrying capacity and the strongest thrust—the Long March V—was successfully launched for the first time at the Hainan Wenchang space launch site, marking that the size of China `s carrier rocket has been changed from heavy to large scale.
The large-scale leap is one of the important signs that China is moving from a space bigger country to a space power country. BGTG Special Steel developed the high-temperature alloy series turbine rotor forgings and ultra-long high-temperature alloy fine thin-walled pipes for this type of engine, which made an important contribution to the flying of the Long March V carrier rocket.
The engine is known as the "heart" of the rocket. To support the long five flight, a large thrust engine is required. BGTG Special Steel developed the high-temperature alloy series turbine rotor forging for Changwu, which is a key component of the hydrogen-oxygen engine. Its service process conditions are very harsh and the speed is high. It also proposes a high plasticity, high The requirements for strength and high-temperature performance require high-temperature room-temperature plasticity and low-temperature performance requirements for shafts under low-temperature service conditions, which means that the same forgings have dual microstructure and dual performance requirements, which is very difficult to develop. The alloy thin thin-walled pipe is one of the important components of the Long March series of hydrogen-oxygen engines in active service. The working environment is harsh, the pipe quality requirements are "zero defects", and the manufacturing is extremely difficult. Compared with the fine thin-walled tubing used in the Long March series of rockets, the high-thrust Long March No. 5 oxyhydrogen engine tubing is more demanding in terms of mechanical properties, dimensional accuracy, surface quality and organization.
In order to support the national high-thrust rocket development strategy, Baosteel Special Steel has invariably undertaken the development tasks of high-temperature alloy series turbine rotor forgings and ultra-long GH3600 alloy fine thin-walled pipes. After more than 10 years of unremitting efforts, in terms of turbine rotor forgings, the research and development team made full use of its technical advantages based on existing equipment capabilities, creatively proposed the use of multi-directional hydraulic mechanism blanks, and special hot die forging forming processes. After undergoing many tests, In the end, the high-temperature alloy series turbine rotor forgings with all the organizational performance indicators that met the design requirements were successfully developed; in terms of fine thin-walled pipes, the difficulties in manufacturing ultra-long fine thin-walled pipes were overcome, and the high mechanical performance requirements of the pipes and the surface were solved. A package of technical difficulties such as high quality requirements, high dimensional accuracy requirements and grain size control, successfully developed ultra-long alloy fine thin-walled pipes. Relevant products successfully passed the test of the aerospace department, meeting the urgent needs of high-performance rotor forgings and high-alloy thin-walled tubes in the aerospace field, ensuring related launch tasks, and making outstanding contributions to the development of China's aerospace industry.
The perfect maiden flight of the Long March V launch vehicle has driven the entire development platform and industry chain to update, and has made the overall technological level of China ’s launch vehicle a major step forward. It is an important symbol of China ’s transition from a space power to a space power. With this as a starting point, Baosteel Special Steel will continue to advance along the road of technological innovation of China's aerospace special materials.