Journal of Materials Processing Technology 209 (2009) 49634969

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Journal of Materials Processing Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmatprotec

Digital manufacture of large-grade hydro turbines blades

Xi-de Lai , Qing-hua Zhang, Qing-gang Li, Ting He
School of Energy and Environment, Xihua University, Chengdu, 610039, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 14 March 2005
Received in revised form 8 January 2009
Accepted 22 January 2009
Keywords:
Digital manufacture
Hydraulic turbine
Blade
3D digitized measuring
5-axis NC machining

a b s t r a c t
The blade is one of the vital components and the most difculty in manufacturing of large hydro turbines.
In order to cost-effectively and productively manufacture these kinds of blades, a series of innovative
digital techniques have been developed. It includes the digital design of hydro turbine blades based on
manufacturers requirements, computer-aided location and the machined error evaluation with threedimensional digitized measure, tool path generation strategy for enhancing machining efciency and
controlling deviation in NC machining, tool path generation and NC machining simulation by means of a
virtual NC machining environment for blades, and feasible strategy and the systematic scheme for manufacturing of large blades with 5-axis simultaneous CNC machining technology. The developed innovative
digital manufacture techniques have been successfully applied in the manufacturing of both the large
grade Kaplan and Francis hydraulic turbine blades. It has been shown that the higher efciency and the
better surfaces nish accuracy can be achieved in practical engineering.
2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction
Hydro turbine blades, such as Francis and Kaplan types, are
usually designed by means of a series of special hydrodynamics
methods, or digitized from the models. Traditionally, the large grade
hydraulic turbine blades were machined by manual grinding operations and inspections with sets of the combined templates. The
range of the deviation between the machined and designed model
was usually within 11.5% D1 (D1 is the diameter of the runner,
unit: mm) (Lai, 2000, 2001). If D1 = 6000 mm, then the range of
the deviation was 69 mm. This traditional way can neither satisfy
the rapid developments of large hydro turbine nor ensure accuracy of nished blades. Hydro turbine manufacturers have been
trying to machine these kinds of large blades using CNC machining techniques in recent year (Chen and Lai, 2003). For a Kaplan
blade with runners diameter of 6000 mm, it was machined by
3-axis simultaneous CNC machining technology with 100 mm
ball-end cutter, if the scallop height was controlled less than 1 mm,
the total machined time was about 210 h (Lai, 2000). As the surfaces of a large blade to be machined are usually from several
to tens of square meters and involve bulk metal removal while
machining from the blades casting, it tends to be non-productive
to machine these kinds of blade using traditional 3-axis machining with ball-end cutters. With the advent of large size multi-axis

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 28 87720517; fax: +86 28 87720521.

E-mail address: laixd@mail.xhu.edu.cn (X.-d. Lai).
0924-0136/$ see front matter 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2009.01.018

CNC machines, an innovative 5-axis simultaneous CNC machining

technology has become not only feasible but also cost effective for
large parts with sculptured surfaces. For the same Kaplan blade
with runners diameter of 6000 mm, it was machined by 5-axis
simultaneous CNC machining technology with 200 mm indexable insert face milling cutter and a series of digital manufacture
techniques described in this paper, if the scallop height was controlled less than 1 mm, the total machined time was about 30 h
(Lai, 2001). As a large hydro turbine blade is closed with more
than 10 sculptured surfaces that have irregular curvature distribution and very uneven thickness, so it is still much difcult to mill
the blades by 5-axis CNC machining. In practice, the 5-axis CNC
machining not only offers many advantages over the 3-axis machining, which include the higher productivity and improved surfaces
nish accuracy, but also brings about more complex technological
problems, such as highly complex algorithms for gouging avoidance and collision detection, complex surface machining errors
that result from the traditional NC programming methods, etc.
(Lo, 1999; Lai et al., 2003). However, a reasonable strategy and
systematic scheme of blades manufacture with the right combination of a series of digital manufacture techniques that we had
developed can solve those complex problems in engineering and
made them operational feasibility in technology. The developed
digital manufacture techniques mainly include: (1) digital design
and three-dimensional modeling of a blade based on manufactures
requirements; (2) computer-aided localization for position and
setup by means of three-dimensional digitized measure for blades
casting; (3) machining strategy and tool path planning with the
help of computer-aided geometrical analysis; (4) 5-axis machining

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Fig. 1. A typical blade manufacturing strategy for large size hydro turbines.

tool path generation for different surfaces of a blade with Adaptive

Step Length method and error control (Lai et al., 2003); (5) computer simulation for machining of a large blade to verify the cutting
gouges and collisions between machine tool and blade and xtures;
(6) computer-aided inspection and the machined error evaluation
for the nished blade surfaces by means of three-dimensional digitized measure; with the right combination of the above digital
manufacture techniques, both Kaplan and Francis hydro turbine
blades can be cost-effectively and productively manufactured, and
it has been shown that the higher efciency and the better surfaces nish accuracy can be achieved in the manufacturing of large
blades.
2. Manufacturing strategy of large blades with digital
manufacture techniques
The key to the cost effectiveness of 5-axis machining for large
hydro turbine blades is how to make reasonable and feasible manufacture strategy and planning. By means of digital manufacture
techniques that we have been developed, a typical blades manufacturing strategy with 5-axis CNC machining is shown in Fig. 1.
3. Digital design for blades manufacturing requirement
A hydro turbine blade is very complex body closed by sculptured
surfaces. Conventionally, the pattern drawing is used to represent surfaces of blade in the runners design, which is not able to
meet the requirements for establishing digital models in the digital design and manufacturing of hydro turbines blades (Lai and
Wang, 1997; Lai, 2001). For the exact geometrical modeling of a
blade, the pattern drawing has to be transformed to the point sets
along the intersection curves between blade and stream surfaces
with the special developed software (Lai and Wang, 1997), and then
the NURBS representation is used as a unied digital model for the
surfaces geometrical design of a blade. In order to implement NC
machining on a gentry machine, a blade is usually subdivided into
more than 10 sculptured surfaces (Lai, 2000, 2001). Fig. 2 shows
a typical large Kaplan turbine blade, which consists of a ange
with sphere surface and surfaces of face, back, inlet, outlet, hub and
shroud with skirts. As shown in Fig. 3, a typical large Francis turbine blade can be subdivided into the surfaces of face, back, crown,
band, inlet, outlet, weld preps between crown and blade, and weld
preps between band and blade. How to establish the 3D model of
these kinds of blade had been presented in the reference (Lai et al.,
2002).

Fig. 2. 3D modeling of Kaplan turbine blade.

manufacturing technology (Chen and Lai, 2003), and the errors can
be controlled under 1.52.0% D1 (D1 is the diameter of runner, unit:
mm). The digital model of blades casting cannot be dened by this
way. However, the digital model of blades casting has to be obtained
in the digital manufacturing, so 3D digitized measure techniques is
needed to inspect the blades casting. After nished machining, the
nished blades need to be inspected the compliance between the
designed and machined, accordingly 3D digitized measure techniques is also needed. For each blades casting or nished blade, a
series of points on each surfaces of blade can be measured by noncontact or contact measuring methods (Lai et al., 2003; Sijie et al.,
2004). The non-contact measuring instruments, such as high accuracy theodolites and laser tracker, are more convenient and suitable
for large blade castings. Fig. 4 shows that a blade casting is being
measured with the high accuracy theodolites (Made by Leica in

4. Localization and machined error evaluation by

three-dimensional digitized measure
4.1. Three-dimensional digitized measure for blades castings and
nished blades
Each blades casting has different and uneven stocks distribution. The castings are used to inspect 3D template in the traditional

Fig. 3. 3D modeling of Francis turbine blade.

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CAL software has been developed and applied in the 5-axis machining of both the large Kaplan and Francis hydro turbine blades. With
this software, we can easily and quickly search the optimal setup
position for blade casting on machine. This optimal setup position can be transformed to machine coordinate system with xture
adjusting reference points, so the setup time can be dramatically
decreased to less than 1 h while 5-axis machining from more than
20 h with a probe mounted on the machine and adjusted manually.
Additionally, it is more important that this method can keep the
even stocks on each surface to be machined and decrease the cost of
machining. Fig. 5 shows the optimal stock distribution computation
on computer by our self-developed software.
4.3. Inspection and machined error evaluation based on
three-dimensional digitized measure data

Fig. 4. 3D measure of blades casting with theodolites.

Switzerland). In order to dene the geometry of a blade casting, all

surfaces of a blade casting should be measured, two sets of theodolite are usually placed on a xed place and a casting or nished blade
has to be turn over more than one times, so all the measured data
should be unied in the same measuring coordinate system (Lai et
al., 2002; Sijie et al., 2004). The measured errors can be controlled
less than 1 mm for the blades casting and 0.5 mm for the nished
blade and only taken about 3 h for one blades measuring by this
way.
4.2. Computer-aided localization computation for setup
Because each blade casting has different and uneven stocks distribution and there is no basis for position on blades castings, one
of the key techniques in CNC machining of a large blade is that
how to set up correctly for each blade casting on machine in a very
short time. It was difcult to localize a large blade casting on a
machine in traditional way with manually adjusted by means of
measuring with a probe mounted on the machine. It spent more
than 20 h for position and setup of a large grade blade, so this
way was not only arduous and time-consuming, but also cannot be
ensured even allowance for machining of each blades surface. An
efcient method is to use computer-aided localization technique
that is based on the above 3D measure data of each blades casting. By this method, the right spatial setup position for each blade
casting can be computed by our self-developed software (Lai et al.,
2003; Sijie et al., 2004).
The localization of a blade is to align the stock surface with its
CAD model, which can be done by searching the optimal Euclidean
transformation between the measurement coordinate frame of
the casting and the blades CAD model coordinate frame. For
computer-aided localization (CAL) of a large blade, it is a hybrid
location/envelopment problem in engineering. The key to solve this
problem is how to quickly and accurately nd the matching relation
that can keep the allowance even on all surfaces between the measured blade castings and the CAD model. After we carefully studied,
a new method is proposed for solving localization problem of blade,
which consists of the rough surface matching and the accuracy surface matching. The rough matching decides the variable range of
the follow-up algorithms, and the accuracy matching acquires the
optimal location. Then, the rapid localization and setup of a blade
can be implemented on a CNC machine. To cope with the accuracy
matching, a hybrid global optimization method is adopted. It shares
the advantages of both genetic algorithms (GAs) and simplex (Lai et
al., 2003; Sijie et al., 2004). Based on the proposed method, special

After nished machining, the nished blades need to be

inspected the compliance between the designed and machined. The
3D templates are not only unsuitable for the inspection of nished
blades as that the error is too large for the CNC machined blade,
but also cost very high as that different blade need different 3D
template. We developed the special software for computer-aided
inspection (CAI) by comparing 3D digitized measure data of nished
blade with blades CAD model based on the reference marks on the
nished blade. This way of inspection is not only more effective and
accurate but also cost much lower than the traditional method with
3D templates. The errors of surface are less than 0.5 mm for the nished blade and only taken about 3 h for one large blades inspection
by this way (Lai et al., 2003; Sijie et al., 2004). It has been proved
that this method can be widely used in blades manufacturing as a
kind of general technique.
5. Machining strategy for digital manufacture of a blade
Five-axis simultaneous CNC machining technology is the most
effective and productive processing method to implement digital
machining of a large hydro turbines blade. Because the higher efciency as well as the better surfaces nish accuracy is required in
machining of a large blade, it is very important that study machining strategy for digital manufacture. In order to mill the blades on
an actual CNC machine, a large blade is usually subdivided into
more than 10 surfaces depending on the machines congurations.
Each surface has its characteristic and surface property. In order
to make the reasonable machining strategy, computer-aided geometrical analysis of each surface is very helpful to decide selection
of cutter diameter, cutting direction, tool-axis orientation and so
on. Surface properties such as different curvatures, normal vector
surfaces, highlight lines and continuity can be computed and displayed graphically by computer-aided geometrical analysis. With
the help of surface curvature analysis, we can make rough selection
of the diameter of cutting tools for each surface machining. For the
surfaces of face and back of large blades, a large diameter heavyduty indexable inserts face-milling cutter with 60 rake angle can
be used for rough milling, and a large diameter face-milling cutter
with round inserts can be used for semi-nish and nish milling.
For surface of outlet, a long ute end-milling cutter can be used by
side-wall milling. For inlet and weld preparation surfaces, a large
diameter face-milling cutter with large round inserts can be used
for roughing and nishing. The detailed tool diameters should be
decided by the rules to avoid gouging in tool path generation. The
cutting parameters should be veried by the cutting power and
stiffness of machining system. The tool feed direction and tool orientation is very important to reduce the geometrical errors and
enhance the machining efciency for 5-axis surfaces machining.
The tool feed direction is the major parameter for minimization

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Fig. 5. Optimal computation of stocks on blade.

of machining time. It should be chosen such that the normal of

surface does not change too much along the path. The tool orientation must be chosen carefully so that no rear gouging occurs during
machining (Lai, 2000, 2001). In principle, a small inclination angle
corresponds to large effective cutter radius and results in a smaller
scallop height. Consequently, the inclination angle can be chosen as
small as possible so that a large path interval can be used to improve
the machining efciency within the allowable maximum scallop
height. A method of deciding optimum tool orientation to avoid
rear gouging using global geometry information and the undercut
and gauge errors relating to tool orientation was presented in the
reference (Lo, 1999; Lai et al., 2003). How to reduce the geometrical
errors and enhance nish surface accuracy is very important in 5axis machining of blades surfaces. It has been proposed that how to
control and reduce the geometrical errors caused by the step length
and path interval, and how to improve the surface quality and efciency in 5-axis machining of the large blades surfaces by us in the
reference (Lai et al., 2003). Those machining strategies have been
proved that distinct advantages are small scallop heights with large
cross-feed, improvement of tool life and better surface nish, and
reduction of vibration and defection during milling of a large blade.

6. Tool path planning and 5-axis CNC programming for

digital machining of a blade
6.1. Tool path planning
As the surfaces of a large blade to be machined are usually from
several to tens of square meters, a productive way is to mill these
kinds of large blades by using 5-axis simultaneous CNC machining
techniques. In order to obtain the higher productivity and improved
surfaces nish accuracy, the parameters of tool path planning for
each surface should be carefully given by trying and verifying with
combination of cutting simulation in computer. To ensure the properties of uid dynamics, the form deviation between the design and
the machined blade has to be strictly controlled. In order to control
form deviation in blades surfaces machining, the tool path planning is usually dened in order to respect these specications which
include the geometrical errors, roughness and waviness as much as
possible. The geometrical errors are majority of the form deviation,

in order to effectively control and reduce the geometrical errors,

it is necessary to obtain the link between the geometrical errors
and the parameters that include tool feed direction, the step length
along the CC (cutter contact) path, path interval and tool orientation
in tool path planning. The step length and path interval generally
affect the geometrical errors of the machined surfaces and for a
given path interval various cutter feed direction and tool orientation lead to different machine times. As a matter of fact, both the
step length and path interval denes the precision of the machined
part surfaces (Lo, 1999; Lai et al., 2003), and these parameters can
be input in the current CAM system. Unfortunately, it does not take
the non-linear errors into account step length calculating of 5-axis
machining in the current CAM system. In the reference (Lai et al.,
2003), based on the analysis of the tool envelope motion in 5-axis
machining and taken the affection of rotational movement in 5-axis
machining into account, an innovative adaptive step length method
had been proposed by us to establish link between the geometrical
errors (non-linear error is included in multi-axis machining) and
the parameters. This method has been proved that can effectively
control and reduce the machining errors in tool path planning.
In practical tool path generating of a blades surface, the maximum allowable scallop height hmax , or the maximum path interval
wmax should be set. For generating tool path to maintain the
machined surface quality and the higher machining efciency, both
hmax and wmax should be reasonably chosen. hmax < ke is required,
where 0 < k < 1, e represents the allowable surface geometrical error.
k (0.2,0.6) is proposed to enhance the machining efciency of the
large part surfaces. If the cutting power and stiffness of machining system are allowable, that wmax /d (0.4, 0.7) (where d is the
diameter of cutter) is suggested to improve the surface nish in 5axis machining of the large part surface. Tool orientation not only
affects the CC path error as discussed above, but also the scallop
error. The distribution of the machined surface geometrical error
depends on the tool orientation and the local surface curvature. The
scallop height will decrease as the inclination angle decreases. The
inclination angle L is mainly used to avoid rear gouging of cutter,
so the minimum inclination angle Lmin is required for rear-gouging
avoidance (Lo, 1999; Lai et al., 2003). In addition, a reasonable
inclination angle can improve the life of cutter and decrease the
vibration caused by the cutting in 5-axis machining. That inclination angle should be adaptively computed within (Lmin , Lmax ) in

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4967

Fig. 6. Five-axis CNC programming ow chart for blade machining.

practical tool path generating of blades surface. For 5-axis machining of the larger curvature surface, if the inclination angle cannot
be tuned to satisfy that effective cutting radius less than the local
curvature radius of part surface, searching for the tilt angle L is
needed to avoid gouging. The scallop height will increase as tilt
angle L increases. In 5-axis machining of large sculptured surfaces with the large diameter face mills, if the surface curvature
does not change intensely, generally, let L = 0. In practical process planning of a large blade, to effectively control the machined
errors and enhance the machining efciency, it should be subdivided according to geometrical property of part surface. Take a large
Francis hydro turbine blade for example; it should be subdivided
into 11 surfaces in machining as mentioned in the suction 3. Different tool path generating planning is made for the different sub-area
based on its surface properties. In order to reach the requirement
of geometrical specications of a blades surface, it is necessary to
colligate the scallop error and the CC path error in determining of
tool path parameters as mentioned above. Iterating tool path generation and cutting simulation in computer is widely applied to
further optimize the tool path planning in digital machining of a
large hydro turbines blade.
6.2. Five-axis CNC programming for large blades
CNC programming is the most important task in 5-axis machining of large blades. In order to do the cost effectiveness CNC
programming for a large blade, besides all the above digital manufacture techniques will be put to use synthetically, it is necessary
to combine the cutting simulation and machining process simulation during tool path generation. After tool path planning
parameters is given, tool path generation can be implemented by redevelopment based on commercially powerful CAD/CAM software
such as SDRC/Camand or Unigraphcis. The 5-axis CNC programming
ow chart that we adopted is shown in Fig. 6.
7. Digital simulation and verication for machining of a
large blade
Although a lot of works, such as 3D modeling for all surfaces,
machining strategy and tool path planning, have been carefully
done, it is still not able to ensure that there are no problems in CNC
programs of blades machining. To avoid the over-cut and collision
between tool shanks/milling head and blade/xtures, and overload
in machining, it is necessary to develop computer simulation techniques for verifying the tool path or CNC programs. Based on the tool
swept body and NC-machining simulation with G-buffer method

Fig. 7. Machining process simulation for a Kaplan blade.

(Lai et al., 2002), the special software for verifying and evaluating NC programs for large blades has been developed. Using the
developed computer simulation software, the real machining environment of large blade and machining processing can be simulated
and geometrical error of tool path can be veried, and whether collision between the moving components and blade/xtures can be
checked with the simulation software. As it is an extremely complex
machining process for a large blade, combining with the developed
computer simulation techniques, the machining strategy and tool
path planning parameters and cutting parameters can be further
optimized. The function of the developed software for simulation
machining of large hydro turbine blades includes: (1) tool path
simulation and verication for cutting; (2) machine processing simulation and verication for collision. Fig. 7 shows a snapshot during
machine processing simulation of a large Kaplan blade.
8. Examples for digital manufacture of large blades
The above-mentioned digital manufacture techniques have been
used in manufacturing of both the large Francis and Kaplan hydro
turbine blades by us. As an example, 5-axis machining of a large
Kaplan blade is shown in Fig. 8, and its 3D model is shown in Fig. 2.
This blade is for Gaobazhou Hydro Power Station in China and its
diameter of runner is 5800 mm (hereafter is called Example No. 1).
Another example is 5-axis machining of a large Francis blade with
runner diameter of 10000 mm (hereafter is called Example No. 2)
shown in Fig. 9, and its 3D model is shown in Fig. 3. This blade is for

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Table 1
The detail machining information for two examples.
Example No. 1

Example No. 2

Machine specication
Kind of blade
Area (m2 )

X-travel:15.5 m, Y-travel: 6.9 m, Z-travel:1.6 m, W-travel:4 m, C-axis: 180 , A-axis: 95

Kaplan (feature: small curvature)
Francis (feature: large curvature)
15
40

Cutting depth (mm)

Rough machining
Semi-nishing
Finishing

58 mm with 250 mm face milling cutter

3 mm with 200 mm face milling cutter
2 mm with 200 mm face milling cutter

510 mm with 200 mm face milling cutter

3 mm with 160 mm face milling cutter
2 mm with 160 mm face milling cutter

Total machining time (h)

Max. deviation (mm)

30
<3

250
<4

Fig. 8. Photo for machining of a Kaplan blade (for Gaobazhou Power Station).

Sanxia Hydro Power Station in China and the largest Francis blade in
the world so far. This blade has surface area of 40 m2 to be machined
from the casting of 30 tons to the net weight of 19 tons. The blade
is closed by 11 sculptured surfaces and twisted into X shape in
the minimum contained space of 5500 mm (length) 4650 mm
(width) 1900 mm (height).
These blades have been machined on a large size 5-axis gantry
travel machine with the indexable inserts face milling cutter (Flat
cutter with 60 side angle) for roughing and semi-nishing, and the
indexable round inserts face milling cutter (Filleted cutter) for nishing. The distance between the tool tip and the pivot (L) is 550 mm.
The parameters of tool path planning for the face and back of the
blade are: the feed direction is along the parameter line and cutting from the outlet of blade, and the adaptive step lengths along
CC path are calculated with constant error = 0.3 mm in nishing.

Tool path interval is determined by maximum scallop height with

hmax = 0.6 mm, and whether the path intervals are within 60% of
cutter diameter is veried. The tool orientation is adaptive controlled within L (1 ,8 ), L (0 ,2 ) in the tool path generating.
After the whole process completed, the blade surfaces are inspected
with high accuracy theodolites (Made by Leica in Switzerland) to
measure and calculate the machined form deviations. The maximum deviation value between the machined and design model
locates on area of the outlet of the blade, which was mainly caused
by the machining deformation as the smaller thickness in this area.
However, the non-geometrical errors, which are caused by machine
and xture geometry, deformation induced by cutting forces and
thermal in machining, is about 1.52.5 mm depending on the kind
and size of the blade at least (Lai et al., 2003), so the geometrical
error in tool path generating is within 1.5 mm. The detail machining
information of two examples is given in Table 1. Up to now, more
than 70 blades for Sanxia Hydro Power Station have been manufactured by the proposed digital manufactured techniques in this
paper.
9. Conclusions
This paper presents our developed digital manufacture techniques of large hydro turbine blades, which are keys for successful
manufacturing of large blades with 5-axis CNC machines. With
the right combination of the developed techniques, large hydro
turbine runners blades of both Kaplan and Francis can be costeffectively and productively manufactured. They are also applicable
in 5-axis machining of the other large parts with sculptured surfaces.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant No. 59493704), and partially supported by the Key Project of National Ninth-Five Year Plan in
China (Grant No. 97-312-01) and the Natural Science Foundation of
Sichuan Provincial Department of Education (Grant No. 07ZA116).
The large hydro turbine blades had been machined at Dongfang
Electrical Machinery Co. Ltd. Their supports are greatly appreciated.
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