Measuring High Precision Turbine Blades

Hyatech relies on measurement solutions from WENZEL for the quality assurance of its high-precision turbine blades. The up-and-coming high-tech company specializes in research and development, production and sales of important components for aircraft engines. These include high-performance components such as compressor blades, rotating components, and parts such as blisks, casings, turbine and compressor disks, rectifiers and rotor components.

Maximum Ease of Hardware and Software Use

Maximum ease of use for hardware and software for Leiyu Zhang, engineer at Hyatech, the engine is the ‘heart’ of an aircraft, so the rotating parts and structural elements such as the engine blade, blisk, turbine disk and casing are the ‘muscles and meridians’. As one of the most important parts of the engine, the blade’s geometry directly affects the aerodynamic performance during operation. The characteristic parameters of the engine, the compressor charge ratio, turbine speed, etc. are closely related to the shape and position of the blade. The geometry measurement of the engine blade is therefore particularly important.

Hyatech has grown rapidly in recent years. With soaring production capacity and increasingly complex product structure, the need for measuring equipment has escalated to keep up with the development. Hyatech chose WENZEL among many suppliers for measuring solutions.

“WENZEL has a long manufacturing history, and the coordinate measuring machines are made of granite structures, which has many advantages. The measuring software is modular and can be updated to the latest version very easily.” Leiyu Zhang explained. “We already have two measuring machines from WENZEL that have impressed us with its simple and ergonomic operability. Deciding on another WENZEL coordinate measuring machine (CMM) LH 2015 was easy thanks to our positive experience this far.”

Measuring and determining the machining accuracy is particularly important and challenging due to the higher requirements for blade profile size and positional accuracy of the blisks, the uniform arrangement of the blades in the circumferential direction on the blisks, and the very small airflow channel between the blades. The five-axis measuring machine solves the above challenges perfectly.

Measuring Module For Gear Teeth and Roughness

The WENZEL LH 2015 is a high-speed, high-precision gantry CMM that supports tactile, scanning and optical sensors. The measuring range in X, Y and Z is 2000 mm, 4000 mm and 1500 mm, respectively. The load capacity is 6,000 kg, which can easily accommodate the entire blisk as well as large and complex structural elements.

Compared to previous measuring machines, WENZEL’s solution offers some exceptional advantages, explains Leiyu Zhang: “WENZEL has a lot of experience in measuring blisks and turbine blades. This is necessary because the structure of blisks is complex, and the surface is also difficult to measure. WENZEL offers a measuring module for gears, which is composed for some special components of parts and is very convenient to use.

“In addition, WENZEL offers roughness measurement for blade profiles, which has been improved in terms of time and efficiency; and the form of measurement protocol tends to be standardized. This has opened a new world for Hyatech that can meet future challenges and opportunities.” Leiyu Zhang is also positive about WENZEL’s service:

“We have been working with WENZEL for many years. If we have any questions about the software or hardware, WENZEL is always quick to respond. For example, the service technician always arrives on site the next morning if a problem was reported the previous afternoon and solves it efficiently. We would like to continue this kind of cooperation in the long term.”

For more information: www.wenzel-group.com

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