Application Story

Title: Customer: Website: Jet-engine turbine blade gauging Alcoa Howmet inc. http://www.alcoa.com/howmet/ DP/2/S & DR700 $69,000 (total) in 2006
world leaders in the art of linear measurement

Product Used: Order Value:

Customer Profile
Alcoa Howmet is a specialist in the investment casting & machining of alloy metals (aluminum and titanium), primarily for jet aircraft engines and airframes. This precision process application completes final specification requirements (dimensional accuracy & surface finish) for a variety of casted turbine airfoils and turbine blades (1 to 32 inches in length). Alcoa Howmet is GQS and ISO9002 certified, operating 27 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Japan. Alcoa Howmets customers include: Rolls-Royce, General Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Pratt&Whitney, Samsung, Siemens, the US Air Force and US Navy.

Application Detail
After casting, the turbine blades undergo surface grinding to finish the mating surfaces. The post grinding dimensions of the blade are then gauged, using DPs and a DR700, for quality control. Measurment data from the DR700 is transmitted via the units RS232 Output to a PC running a Datamyte Statistical Process Control (SPC) system. The data stored by the SPC system is then used to monitor the performance of the grinding process and the quality of the finished parts, providing traceability records from start of process to finished part. Projected orders for 2007/08 from Alcoa Howmet are estimated to include 28 DR700s and 200 DP/2/S.

Who Else?
Other manufacturers of similar products: UK: Finecast Ltd @ www.finecast.co.uk USA: TurboCare Inc. @ www.turbocare.com France: Aquaturbo @ www.aquaturbo.fr Germany: Enercon @ www.enercon.de China: Inner Mongolia First Machinery Ltd @ www.firmaco.com.cn, CNR Tianjin @ www.tlr.cn

Competition
Other Gauging probe & read-out manufacturers: Marposs, Datamyte, Tesa, Sony etc. Howmet originaly used Mahr products but chose Solartron Metrology for: Our higher standard of product quality Our returns & repairs service An overall combined effect that results in a lower cost of ownership for the customer.
Date of creation: 25/07/2007

Application Story number: 2 Author: A Hazelgrove-Planel