A fully integrated robotised cell for producing nozzle guide vanes (NGVs) using Viper grinding technology has been ordered by a leading aero engine manufacturer in India for delivery in December by Hardinge Machine Tools.
The application development and build has been carried out at Hardinge's facility in Leicester following the winning of the contract against strong European creep feed grinding competition.
The cell is based on the 5-axis Bridgeport FGC-2 Flexible Grinding Centre, which has the construction of a VMC facilitating good access for loading and unloading. It can also combine milling and drilling processes within the same cycle as the grinding operation under Heidenhain's iTNC 530 control.
The control incorporates special software developed by Bridgeport for the Viper grinding process that includes twin, fully programmable coolant nozzles for grinding and wheel cleaning. The coolant is supplied by two high pressure pumps within a totally paperless, environmentally friendly FSE coolant filtration system.
The FGC-2 cell will halve the processing time of NGVs compared to existing methods. It will produce batches in engine sets and incorporates a Güdel gantry loader with Kuka robot and a Hexagon CMM. The CMM initially establishes the ‘best-fit' of the throat area of the NGV raw casting to maximise air flow and from which the machining datum is created to achieve the flow.
Following the grinding cycle that will create three location faces on the component, the CMM checks conformance, stores the data and the part is automatically returned to the loading station by the robot. Should any corrective grinding be required, for instance due to excessive casting stock levels, this would be carried out automatically within the cell. Erowa fixturing is used to achieve the high accuracy location in the grinding machine and CMM with relative data transferred between the CMM and the Heidenhain control via an onboard integrated data chip
The FGC-2 cell will also produce three high pressure and three low pressure turbine blade components that involve a total of 32 different operations over the six parts. Also included within the automated grinding process is a small requirement for milling and drilling.
Hardinge
www.hardinge.co.uk
