Automation of a turbine blade encapsulation process

Abstract

An automatic ejection devices was devised to insure that sticking, due to shrinkage of the encapsulation alloy around mold surfaces, would not interrupt a continuous flow of parts through the process. Also, a series of manual operations required in the process were automated, eliminating the need for human intervention with the exception of staging the blades at the start of a run.

The design and construction of a robotic system to automate an existing turbine blade encapsulation process is described. The major component in the automation scheme is a Unimation Puma 560 robot, which takes blades from a staging rack and inserts them among locator points inside an encapsulation mold. To accomplish this objective, a special compliant gripping device was devised that allows for small manufacturing variations in part size and tolerates imprecision in the blade staging location.