July 2009 eNews

Visionaries

Hobbies:

Hiking, boating, camping, hunting, fishing, and running, as well as woodworking, metalworking, and reading.

Currently Reading:

Degrees Kelvin (Lindley); Home Power; von Braun’s doctoral dissertation.

Education:

Master of Science and Doctoral degrees from Purdue University

Experience:

Founded Concepts ETI in 1980 and guided the company as President until 2000 when he led the acquisition of NREC’s consulting and engineering software business. Dr. Japikse’s consulting and designing work has covered a diverse range of pumps, turbines and compressors for turbochargers, gas turbines and air compressors. He has led a 17-year effort to introduce the Agile Engineering Design System into the turbomachinery field and lectures widely on this subject.

Making Impact:

Dr. Japikse has written and co-authored six books and many papers on turbomachinery. On April 20, 2009, he received the 2008 SAE Cliff Garrett Turbomachinery and Applications Engineering Award. He has received the Potter Gold Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering. He is a Fellow of the ASME.

Concepts NREC’s Agile Engineering Design System is often imitated by competitors; its software tools combine experience, test data, and theoretical concepts to aid in turbomachinery design, analysis, and manufacturing.

Trend to Watch:

“Our customary recession mode is to enter late and come out late; this seems to be the case this time as well, although so far, a bit muted. Some sales activities are coming in lighter than desired in the past few months. We don’t really see recovery starting until late 4th Q ’09 or early 1st Q ’10. We have seen no impact of government spending or other actions in our business sector. As usual, we have to go it alone, as many others also must!“Despite the global credit crisis and economic downturn, there will still be great advancements in the field of turbomachinery, especially in alternative energy production. The basic industry demands are present: a) wide availability, economical, green power; b) sustainable feedstocks for the petrochemical industry; and c) fully revitalized automotive and housing market geared to a new economic model.”

For David Japikse, Ph.D., design and product development is a creative process. He feels there is a special joy whenever one can engage in creation, especially when one stands in the shadow of the true Creator who can be experienced through people, life’s many and varied experiences and even machinery design.

In 1980, Dr. Japikse founded Concepts ETI as a company specializing in the design of turbomachinery, and for many years its bladed rotor designs were milled by outside vendors. During that time, he recognized that developing complex turbomachinery components required bringing the manufacturing process closer to the designers, because as any design process evolves, the limits of the design space — aero performance, product strength, vibration aspects, weight, life, cost, manufacturability, etc. — become ever more intertwined. Compromises are made with value-based tradeoffs between these design space variables, so for advanced design and precision machining, it is essential that manufacturing be included directly into the process.

In 2000, Concepts acquired the Woburn, Mass., assets of NREC, another turbomachinery specialist with a wealth of manufacturing experience, including a 5-axis machine shop. The combined company, now known as Concepts NREC (CN) is uniquely positioned as a specialist in the design and manufacture of turbomachinery.

Of course, challenge is an inevitable part of design and development. Resources are always limited. People have needs that may help or hinder the process. Legal issues abound including patent, labor and contract matters, and the laws of nature are always present. Designers often need to invent new ways to work through or around obstacles.

How does one address challenges? Japikse finds that most successful design entrepreneurs have optimistic and buoyant personalities; he adds that having a sincere faith life can be a great asset. His greatest challenges and achievements include a people-based system with all aspects of design, management, manufacturing, testing, marketing and sales and then finding good contract opportunities for the engineering work. Concepts NREC has done so extensively in turbocharging, gas turbines, turbopumps, industrial machinery, software, and so forth. Japikse credits the Concepts NREC team with these accomplishments.

As we enter into a new global economy focused on energy efficiency and alternative energies, the complexity of turbomachinery mandates seamless communication between designer and manufacturers. New design methods may lead to blade shapes that are difficult to mill as blade surfaces are sculpted and closely spaced, which limits tool access. The blades can also be thin and easily deflected, which makes accurate milling difficult. Harder materials increase cutting time and tooling costs dramatically. For these reasons, it will be more important than ever to maintain the communication between designers and manufacturers. Such communication is embodied in Concepts NREC’s Agile Engineering Design system, a suite of commercially available software products connecting all of the disciplines required to produce a turbomachinery wheel, including blade design, CFD analysis, rotodynamics, stress analysis, and manufacturing.

One excellent example of the Agile system at work is the production of “integrally shrouded” rotors that consist of blades, hub, and shroud all cut from one piece. The flow passages are extremely restrictive to tool access, which can be quickly verified in the MAX-PAC CAM module. If necessary, blade shapes can be easily adjusted in the AxCent blade design module.

The synergy of the Agile Engineering System brings individual products to higher level so that designers can create more manufacturable designs, and manufacturers can produce the efficient and alternative energy designs.

Contact Dr. David Japikse at info@ConceptsNREC.com

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Concepts NREC

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