Smart Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Inspection for Turbine Guide Vanes with Trend Line and Geometric Profile Tolerance

Marcin Jamontt,Paweł Pyrzanowski

doi:10.3390/app11041658

Marcin Jamontt, Paweł Pyrzanowski

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041658

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Abstract

Turbine guide vanes are among the most critical and complex turbine parts. As an entire engine comprises a significant number of vanes, simplification of the measurement process translates into overall time and money savings. The key to simplification is to define critical areas for inspection, which enables relaxation of strict inspection standards in all areas of stable process manufacturing. The method described herein can help engineers to achieve savings in inspection time and cost, at the same time ensuring the correct shape of vanes as the approach used in this work places great emphasis on correlations between measurements, working conditions, and manufacturing abilities. Another element of the novelty of this approach is an atypical hybrid convention for the crossing of vertical and horizontal inspection paths, assuring a correlation between the measured sections. Although this novel approach was used to measure the geometry of a cast turbine guide vane, it can be easily implemented to measure the geometry of any other element of complex shape.

Highlights

Turbine guide vanes, alongside with turbine blades, are crucial components in the gas turbine system
For the purpose of the last of these, the form and profile can be inspected by a coordinate measuring machine (CMM)
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel methodology of geometry inspection of complex-shaped elements

Summary

Introduction

Alongside with turbine blades, are crucial components in the gas turbine system. 3D printing of such elements is still under development, especially for parts working in high temperature in the hottest area of the turbine and, this method is of negligible industrial impact. For the purpose of the last of these, the form and profile can be inspected by a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). Another method gaining increasing popularity is optical scanning. It has lower accuracy and is still relatively slower, but it is able to deconstruct the overall 3D part shape, which can be compared with the original CAD (Computer-aided design) model [1,2]. The trend in modern approaches is to focus on fast-developing 3D scanning techniques, but there is still scope for improvement in existing and commonly used coordinate measurement machines, with strictly-defined rules and standards [3]

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