Pelton wheel by hydro

Hey! This thing is still a Work in Progress. Files, instructions, and other stuff might change!

Pelton wheel

hydro

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Published on January 28, 2012

Description

Impulse water turbine

Instructions

The type of plastic used to fabricate this pelton wheel will determine the size/scale/power of the turbine. However, the most likely approach will be to print this object in plastic (such as PLA), and create a mold, from which the wheel can be cast in stronger materials such as metal or resin. Overhangs may require support material, depending on the type of printer used. Hand finishing may be required to smooth some of the profiles, depending on the resolution of your printer.

Object can be scaled according to power requirement of pelton wheel, flow rate and pressure of water jet.

This design is based on the work by Tobias Schneider

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kandis on April 11, 2013 said:

We are searching for a pelton wheel for a model of an energy storage. We are becoming engineering technicians and this is a project we want to build. We cant find a pelton wheel with the needed measurements. If you are interested in seeing your pelton wheel in a model of an potential energy storage, pleases contact me: m.wuerfele@web.de That would be great! Thanks!

dthorpe on February 4, 2012 said:

I ran off a quick print of this in hydroperm gypsum cement (plaster). Model works great!

hydro on February 5, 2012 said:

Wow! thanks for sharing the print. Its looks great to physically see it :) have the profiles come out smooth? If need be I was thinking they could be hand finished/sanded to increase efficiency.

Lanthan on January 29, 2012 said:

The wheel might print better in two halves (sliced in the plane defined by the hub.

The idea of casting this in one piece is interesting, from what I have seen the attachment of individually cast elements to the hub is almost always a source of problems and premature failures.

hydro on February 1, 2012 said:

Indeed, it might print better in two halves. In terms of using FFD (such as RepRap) it would probably be better to print each bucket first, and then attach them together to the main wheel. I have uploaded individual buckets here: