The hole is greater than the sum of its parts

Something struck me recently following an off the cuff comment by a colleague who said “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” when referring to a team working well together. In my opinion this outlook can be applied not only to people, but to technology, systems and approaches too.

Aristotle’s quote, commonly referenced in relation how people work together, refers to how the outcome can be greater than the sum of individual parts. Put simply, when people work in a team the result is better than you would expect from the individual efforts combined, due to the way in which working together adds a different quality.

The same can be applied to other examples too. For example, the components of an aeroplane. They only create value when combined to create a plane – the result is flight.

So what about tech? In the same way in which different brains and materials combine to deliver a greater output, surely the same applies to different types of technology, equipment, IT infrastructure and operational systems?

One example that comes to mind is ELE’s pioneering cooling hole solution for turbine blades. By their very nature, turbine blades get hot – up to temperatures of 1400 degrees Celsius in fact. To prevent them for melting, precision holes need to be designed and created to cool the blades down.?

Producing these cooling holes may sound simple. However, the more advanced the hole geometry — in terms of the complexity of the designs, the greater the effectiveness of the cooling and the ability to increase the lifespan and efficiency of the component. So, the complexity of these geometry designs is constantly developing. And the technology needed to create the optimum geometry designs is evolving too.

What we’ve found is how well our technologies and techniques have combined to make the most complex and challenging solutions possible. One size certainly doesn’t fit all in terms of cooling holes, and a mix of technology (and skills) are needed to produce components to meet particular bespoke specifications.

For example, our most recent advancement has been in ELE’s ability to combine two different technologies to enable ablative laser hole drilling through coated components. The new technique involves first removing the coating layers of non-conductive laminate from the base metal of the component using a laser beam. After exposing the base conductive material, a fast hole drilling process can then be used to drill small cooling holes.?

Holes can be created after coating and avoiding the need for tedious, labour intensive, costly, time consuming, and not always successful masking of holes that were installed before the coating process. Plus it gives more accurate and repeatable airflow results, improving the life of the components and efficiency of the engine.

By developing an approach that combines laser ablation and fast hole drilling, both processes can be carried out on the same machine, avoiding any potential mismatch between different processes. Multiple capabilities in one location also eliminates the need to involve third parties, reducing the cost and time of production for customers.

So, combining technology not only enables us to produce cooling hole geometry consisting of a variety of holes of all shapes and sizes - from a diameter of 0.3mm up to 6.5mm. In a wider sense it also enables us to deliver increased efficiency, performance and sustainability for our customers.

And this hadn’t happened in isolation. To develop our technology and techniques in the most effective way we have teamed up with partners, stakeholders, customers, and machine tool suppliers at all stages of research and development to optimise the solutions created. Technology brought together by people working together. In so many ways the sum really is greater than the sum of its parts.

Developments in technology are central to ELE’s offering. I’d love to hear from other businesses who also have examples how bringing together people, systems, approaches and technology is making great things possible.