Process for making a vane for a rotary compressor

Abstract

A process of making a vane for a rotary expansible chamber device, comprising the steps of: providing an open vane die having a die cavity, wherein said die cavity comprises a body cavity section corresponding to a body of the vane, a first tip cavity section corresponding to a first tip of the vane, and a second tip cavity section corresponding to a second tip of the vane; providing a preheated, porous carbon preform in the first tip cavity section of the vane die, the preform having a shape corresponding to at least a portion of the first tip cavity section; closing the vane die; injecting a castable admixture comprising a metal alloy and a plurality of inorganic particles into the die cavity and filling the vane die cavity with the injected admixture; impregnating the preform with the metal alloy of the injected admixture, substantially all of the inorganic particles from the injected admixture being filtered out by the preform as the admixture flows into the preform; allowing the castable admixture to solidify, whereby a vane is formed in the die cavity; and removing the vane from the die.