The present application claims priority to Application No. 10 2004 037 954.8, filed in the Federal Republic of Germany on Aug. 5, 2004, which is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto.
The present invention relates to a device for surface blasting, e.g., for ultrasonic shot blasting, components, e.g., gas turbine components.
Gas turbines, particularly aircraft engines, have at least one rotor equipped with rotating moving blades, particularly in the region of a compressor and of a turbine, the rotating moving blades of the gas turbine being either anchored by profiled blade roots in recesses of the gas turbine rotor or being an integral part of a gas turbine rotor. If the moving blades are anchored by blade roots in corresponding recesses of the rotor, then the blade roots are profiled either according to the so-called fir tree design or according to the so-called dovetail design. The fir tree-profiled or dovetail-profiled surfaces of a root of a gas turbine blade are also called bearing flanks or bearing surfaces. During the operation of a gas turbine, the blade roots are highly stressed on their profiled bearing surfaces, particularly by fretting. The wear rate in the region of the blade roots may be reduced by hardening the blade roots on their bearing surfaces using special surface machining methods. A similar problem may arise with respect to integrally bladed gas turbine rotors, which are hardened in the region of their rotor discs so as to minimize the wear rate. The surfaces of the blades of gas turbines blades are also hardened to minimize the wear rate.
Shot blasting may be used as a surface machining method for hardening components, particularly of gas turbine components such as gas turbine blades. In conventional shot blasting, a significant surface roughening may occur on the blasted surfaces. For improving the machining quality resulting from shot blasting, it is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109 to harden blade roots of gas turbine blades, for example, in the region of their profiled bearing surfaces using ultrasonic shot blasting.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109 describes such a device having an ultrasonic sonotrode, the ultrasonic sonotrode having a horizontal or level vibrating or oscillating surface, and a machining chamber extending above this oscillating surface, in which gas turbine blades with their blade roots are arranged upright for machining the blade roots in the region of their bearing surfaces. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109, for this purpose, the gas turbine blades are oriented upright such that the profiled bearing surfaces of the blade roots to be machined extend essentially perpendicular to the oscillating surface of the ultrasonic sonotrode. In this manner, it is possible to achieve only an insufficient quality in shot blasting the profiled bearing surfaces of the blade roots. Furthermore, using the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,109, it may not be possible to blast thin-walled components, since such thin-walled components may be exposed to unacceptable deformation when machined in this device.
An example embodiment of the present invention may provide a device for surface blasting, e.g., ultrasonic shot blasting, of components.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a machining chamber is bounded in its cross-section by at least three sides, e.g., by at least two substantially vertical sides and by at least one substantially horizontal side, at least the vertical sides of the machining chamber being formed by oscillating surfaces of in each case one vibrator. The machining chamber has a W-shaped or V-shaped cross-section, at least the vertical sides of the cross-sectionally W-shaped or V-shaped machining chamber being formed by oscillating surfaces of in each case one vibrator. The horizontal sides may be formed as surfaces of in each case one vibrator or as injectors, the injectors moving the beads back onto the vibrating, substantially vertical sides.
With a device for surface blasting components according to an example embodiment of the present invention, it may be possible to achieve an improved machining quality on the component surfaces to be machined compared to conventional devices. Furthermore, a device according to an example embodiment of the present invention may allow, for example, for a machining of blade roots or even of the blades of gas turbine blades such that sections to be hardened are simultaneously blasted from two opposite sides. On the one hand, this may increase the effectiveness in surface blasting, while on the other hand, e.g., in the case of thin-walled components, may avoid unacceptable deformations of the thin-walled component sections to be blasted. A device according to an example embodiment of the present invention may allow for the high intensity bombardment even of thin-walled disks having so-called wings on integrally bladed gas turbine rotors in ultrasonic shot blasting, without unacceptably deforming these complexly formed components in surface blasting.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, the cross-sectionally W-shaped or V-shaped machining chamber is bounded by two outer, substantially vertical long sides and at least one inner, substantially horizontal short side, each of the sides being formed by an oscillating surface of in each case one vibrator. In transition regions between outer long sides and inner short sides or at the low marks of the cross-sectionally W-shaped or V-shaped machining chamber, e.g., in each case an additional oscillating surface of a vibrator is positioned or an injector is provided for the beads.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a device for surface blasting a component includes: at least one vibrator having at least one oscillating surface arranged to define a machining chamber adapted to receive a section to be blasted of the component, the machining chamber bounded cross-sectionally by at least three sides, including at least two substantially vertical sides and at least one substantially horizontal side, each substantially vertical side formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
The surface blasting may include ultrasonic shot blasting.
The component may include a gas turbine component.
The at least one vibrator may include at least one ultrasonic sonotrode.
A cross-section of the machining chamber may be one of (a) W-shaped and (b) v-shaped.
A cross-section of the machining chamber may be W-shaped, and the at least three sides may include two substantially horizontal sides and two substantially vertical sides.
A cross-section of the machining chamber may be W-shaped and may be bounded by two outer, substantially vertical long sides and two inner, substantially horizontal short sides. Each of the outer, substantially vertical long sides and the inner, substantially horizontal short sides may be formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
Each transition region between the outer, substantially vertical long sides and the inner, substantially horizontal short sides may one of (a) form one of the oscillating surfaces and (b) include an injector.
One of (a) the oscillating surfaces at the transition regions and (b) the injectors may be arranged at low points of the W-shaped cross-section of the machining chamber.
The machining chamber may be bounded by one of (a) six oscillating surfaces and (b) four oscillating surfaces and two injectors.
A cross-section of the machining chamber may be V-shaped and may include two substantially vertical sides and one substantially horizontal side. At least each of the substantially vertical sides may be formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
The substantially horizontal side may be formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
The substantially horizontal side may include an injector.
Each transition region between the substantially vertical sides and the substantially horizontal side may one of (a) form one of the oscillating surfaces and (b) include an injector.
The substantially vertical sides may be arranged approximately parallel to one of (a) a surface contour and (b) an envelope of the surface contour to be blasted of the section of the component extending into the machining chamber.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a method includes: blasting a component in a device for surface blasting the component, the device including at least one vibrator having at least one oscillating surface arranged to define a machining chamber adapted to receive a section to be blasted of the component, the machining chamber bounded cross-sectionally by at least three sides, including at least two substantially vertical sides and at least one substantially horizontal side, each substantially vertical side formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
The blasting may include ultrasonic shot blasting the component in the device.
The component may include a gas turbine component.
The blasting may include blasting the component in the device simultaneously from both sides.
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a method includes: simultaneously, bilaterally, ultrasonically shot blasting a component in a device for surface blasting the component, the component including one of (a) a gas turbine blade and (b) an integrally bladed gas turbine rotor, the device including at least one vibrator having at least one oscillating surface arranged to define a machining chamber adapted to receive a section to be blasted of the component, the machining chamber bounded cross-sectionally by at least three sides, including at least two substantially vertical sides and at least one substantially horizontal side, each substantially vertical side formed by one of the oscillating surfaces.
The component may be shot blasted in the shot blasting step in a region of a thin-walled section.
Further aspects and features of example embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the appended Figures.
Example embodiments of the present invention are described in greater detail with reference to
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
With the aid of sides 17, 18, 19 and 20 in the form of oscillating surfaces of ultrasonic sonotrodes, beads located in machining chamber 15 are accelerated and hurled in the direction of the bearing flanks or bearing surfaces 12, 13 of blade root 14. On top, machining chamber 15 is bounded by a non-oscillating cover 21, at which the beads accelerated by the ultrasonic sonotrodes are reflected. In the arrangement illustrated in
It may be further provided to arrange sides 17 and 18 taking the form of vibrating surfaces of ultrasonic sonotrodes of cross-sectionally W-shaped machining chamber 15 such that sides 17 and 18 extend substantially parallel to the surface contour to be blasted. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
As illustrated in
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
An example embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
Thus, a device may be provided for surface blasting components, a machining chamber of the device having a W-profile or a V-profile or being W-shaped or V-shaped in its cross-section, and oscillating surfaces of ultrasonic sonotrodes being positioned at least in the region of the substantially vertical sides of the profile. Oscillating surfaces of ultrasonic sonotrodes or even injectors may also be positioned in the transition area between the outer and the inner sides, e.g., at the low mark of the profiles. Such a device may allow for a simultaneous ultrasonic blasting of thin-walled components from both sides in a particularly effective and gentle manner.
The device may be used in blasting thin-walled gas turbine components, e.g., in blasting gas turbine blades in the region of their blade roots or blades as well as in blasting integrally bladed gas turbine rotors in the region of the rotor disks as well as blades of the same.
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10 2004 037 954 | Aug 2004 | DE | national |
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