Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of epoxy resin tooling and silicone rubber molding techniques

Gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of epoxy resin tooling and silicone rubber molding techniques Purpose – Conventional investment casting of turbine blades is a time consuming and expensive process due to the complications in wax injection steps and the complex shape of airfoil surfaces. By using rapid investment casting, a substantial improvement in the gas turbine blade manufacturing process can be expected. However, this process needs to be able to compete with conventional investment casting from a dimensional accuracy view of point. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the manufacture of gas turbine blades via two indirect rapid tooling (RT) technologies, namely epoxy (EP) resin tooling and silicon rubber molding. Design/methodology/approach – The second stage blade of a Ruston TA 1750 gas turbine (rated at 1.3 MW) was digitized by a coordinate measuring machine. The aluminum‐filled EP resin and silicon rubber molds were fabricated using StereoLithography master models. Several wax patterns were made by injection in the EP resin and silicone rubber molds. These wax patterns were utilized for ceramic shell fabrication and blade casting. Findings – Dimensional inspection of cast blades showed that silicone rubber molding was not a suitable approach for production of blade wax patterns. The maximum deviation for the final cast blade made using the silicone rubber mold was +0.402 mm. The maximum deviation for the final cast blade made using the EP resin mold was lower at −0.282 mm. This showed that EP resin tooling could enable new cost‐effective solutions for small batch production of gas turbine blades. Practical implications – The research results presented will give efficient industrial approach and scientific insight of the gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of rapid technologies. Originality/value – There are some general research works related to utilization of rapid technologies for manufacturing of gas turbine blade. However, this paper presents a unique procedure of integrated reverse engineering and RT technologies for rapid investment casting of gas turbine blade through presenting comprehensive comparison between two techniques from dimensional accuracy view of point. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Rapid Prototyping Journal Emerald Publishing

Gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of epoxy resin tooling and silicone rubber molding techniques

Rapid Prototyping Journal , Volume 17 (2): 9 – Mar 8, 2011

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/gas-turbine-blade-manufacturing-by-use-of-epoxy-resin-tooling-and-lHZDgnilWE

References (21)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1355-2546
DOI
10.1108/13552541111113853
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – Conventional investment casting of turbine blades is a time consuming and expensive process due to the complications in wax injection steps and the complex shape of airfoil surfaces. By using rapid investment casting, a substantial improvement in the gas turbine blade manufacturing process can be expected. However, this process needs to be able to compete with conventional investment casting from a dimensional accuracy view of point. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the manufacture of gas turbine blades via two indirect rapid tooling (RT) technologies, namely epoxy (EP) resin tooling and silicon rubber molding. Design/methodology/approach – The second stage blade of a Ruston TA 1750 gas turbine (rated at 1.3 MW) was digitized by a coordinate measuring machine. The aluminum‐filled EP resin and silicon rubber molds were fabricated using StereoLithography master models. Several wax patterns were made by injection in the EP resin and silicone rubber molds. These wax patterns were utilized for ceramic shell fabrication and blade casting. Findings – Dimensional inspection of cast blades showed that silicone rubber molding was not a suitable approach for production of blade wax patterns. The maximum deviation for the final cast blade made using the silicone rubber mold was +0.402 mm. The maximum deviation for the final cast blade made using the EP resin mold was lower at −0.282 mm. This showed that EP resin tooling could enable new cost‐effective solutions for small batch production of gas turbine blades. Practical implications – The research results presented will give efficient industrial approach and scientific insight of the gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of rapid technologies. Originality/value – There are some general research works related to utilization of rapid technologies for manufacturing of gas turbine blade. However, this paper presents a unique procedure of integrated reverse engineering and RT technologies for rapid investment casting of gas turbine blade through presenting comprehensive comparison between two techniques from dimensional accuracy view of point.

Journal

Rapid Prototyping JournalEmerald Publishing

Published: Mar 8, 2011

Keywords: Rapid prototypes; Epoxy resins; Production equipment; Synthetic rubber; Operations and production management; Turbines

There are no references for this article.