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Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades

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132 Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, 9, 132-141

Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades

Wang Tao1,*, Ding Huapeng1, Tang Jie1 and Wang Hao2

1
Aeronautical Automation College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China, 300300;
2
CETO, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China, 300300

Received: April 14, 2015; Revised: June 30, 2015; Accepted: June 30, 2015

Abstract: Many aero-engine blades are long-term operated in harsh environments. Due to high tem-
perature and pressure in operation, as well as many external impacts, blades may have various defects,
such as erosion, distortion, wear, cracks and impact dents. In terms of prolonging the service lives of
blades, repair is an inevitable choice since replacement is far more expensive. Along with the devel-
opment of the advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), repairing technologies of blades, which
have always mainly depended on the manual operation in the past several ten years, have been one hot research pot in the
aircraft maintenance. The research emphasis is to improve the automation level of repairing process. The reconstruction of
digital model of damaged blade, overlay welding and machining the welded excess are the three key technologies which
influence the automation level of repairing. In this paper, the approaches, methods and methodologies used for the three
technologies are reviewed as well as the comparisons between them are made. Meanwhile, the research directions are
pointed out. The future research works should be emphasized on reconstructing the damaged tip independent of design
model or unused blade, repairing the single-crystal blade with laser, repairing the blisk and improving the robot repairing
system. Here, We also discussed few related patents.

Keywords: Aero-engine, automation, blade, maintain, overhaul, reconstruct, repair.

1. INTRODUCTION If it is worth of repairing, the digital model of damaged blade

An aero-engine blade is a component with short life cycle
and expensive maintenance cost. Due to high temperature
and pressure in operation, as well as many external impacts,
blades may have various defects, such as erosion, distortion,
wear, cracks and impact dents. Defects of blades can reduce
the efficiency of aero-engine, and even impact on the air-
craft’s flight safety. Replacement with one new blade is ex-
pensive, while it is more economical to repair the damaged
blades.
The economic value is great in the market of aero-engine
blade repair. Thus the research on blade repairing technology
attracts a lot of financial resources and manpower in the
world. However, the current repair of blade mainly depends
on manual operation, and so the repair productivity is low
and repair quality highly depends on operator skill. With the
development of AMT based on CAD/CAM, auto-repairs for
blades are widely accepted in aircraft maintenance and over-
haul. The automatically repairing process for blades includes
five steps: pre-repair inspection, reconstruction of digital
model for blade, overlay welding, machining welded excess
and quality inspection, which is illustrated in Fig. (1). Before
repairing the damaged blade, the Pre-inspection must be
done. According to the Aircraft Maintenance Manual
(AMM), the repairable evaluation of damaged blade is given.
*Address correspondence to this author at the Aeronautical Automation
College, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China, 300300;
Tel: (86) 13752582225; Fax: (86) 02224092886;
E-mail: Wangtaotdme@163.com
is reconstructed based on reverse engineering. With the
reconstructed model of the blade, it can be overlay welded
automatically by laser welding. After that, the welded excess
is machined by multi-axis machine, robot, etc., to restore the
shape of blade. So the reconstructed model of damaged blade
is the precondition for automatic welding and machining. At
last, the post-inspection of repairing the quality of blade will
be done based on AMM, which decides whether the repaired
blade is acceptable. Obviously, the key technologies of blade
repair process are reconstruction of digital model, overlay
welding and machining the wielded excess, which have been
implemented by manual operation for a long time. However,
more and more research has been done to automatically im-
plement the three process steps. The remaining sections of
this paper are organized as follows: in the second section, the
reverse engineering methods for reconstructing the digital
model of blade are mentioned. The third section reviews
overlay welding methods for repairing blade. In the fourth
section, methods of machining the welded excess are re-
viewed. Finally, discussion and conclusion are given in the
fifth section.
2. BLADE REMODELING
The cross section curve (CSC) is a key factor for the de-
sign of blade geometry, on which the aerodynamic character-
istics of blade mainly depend. For the design of blade ge-
ometry, it is firstly designed through mathematic and aero-
dynamic methods. Then a number of CSCs are lofted or
stacked to build the blade airfoil body. Hence for recon-

2212-4047/15 $100.00+.00 © 2015 Bentham Science Publishers

Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2 133

Key Process Technologies

Pre-inspection of repair based on
AMM

Reconstruction of
Analysis of damaged blade Digital Model of Blade

Repairable evaluation

Overlay Welding

Post-inspection of Blade Quality after Machining the welded

Repairing excess

Fig. (1). Flowchart of repair of aircraft engine blade.

structing the digital model of damaged blade, CSC should be
recreated at first. Then the 3D model of defective blade is
remodeled by lofting a group of CSCs.
In the research of Monhaghegh et al. [1, 2], seven-arc
approaches have been used to define a CSC. These seven
arcs are tangent to each other, which can make a smooth path
for gas flow. As illustrated in Fig. (2), seven arcs of a CSC
consist of two arcs for the leading edge (LE) and the trailing
edge (TE), three arcs for the suction side (SS) and two arcs
for pressure side (PS). To fulfill a CSC consisting of seven
arcs, a segmentation and constrained fitting algorithm
(SCFA) has been proposed and implemented. A group of
CSCs has been lofted to obtain a 3D blade airfoil body.
Fig. (2). Position of seven arcs in CSC [1].
Li et al. [3] have presented a novel parameterization ap-
proach for turbine blade reverse engineering. Some key fea-
tures have been extracted from the point cloud and then the
imported sketch templates have been optimized to best fit the
cross sectional points under the geometric constraints among
the geometry elements of the sketch. Engineering rules based
parametric modeling or re-design have been realized, where
a typical aerodynamic rule, equal circulation rule, has been
applied on the airfoil’s parametric model. Experimental re-
sults have been presented to demonstrate the innovation and
effectiveness of the solution with a practical CT point cloud
of a turbine blade.
In the research of Li et al. [4], a restructuring algorithm
of twisted turbine blade surface is considered. The main idea
is to split measured points in each layer into sections. Then
measured points of each section are fitted into a curve with
high precision. Getting the same number points from this
curve is essential, so that the number of points in each sec-
tion is equal to initial measuring points to allow an algorithm
to fit the curves to a surface. Then the control points of the
surface are computed with non-uniform B-spline method to
get the twisted turbine blade surface model. The surface er-
rors are calculated with the Imageware software to control
the average error which is within acceptable limits.
The researches mentioned before are mainly focused on
remodeling the undamaged blade by reconstructing the CSC.
Similarly, the methodology has also been utilized in remod-
eling the damaged blade.
The repair of defective voids in turbine airfoils is studied
by Wilson et al. [5], who presented a new semi-automated
geometric reconstruction algorithm. The model is recon-
structed based on the Sectional Gauss Map, which can gen-
erate a series of Prominent Cross Sections (PCS) along the
longitudinal axis of a digitally defective airfoil. The intrinsic
geometry of the PCS lying in the non-defective region is
then extrapolated across the defective region to fill in the
voids. A parameterized geometric representation of the re-
pair volume has been yielded by a Boolean difference be-
tween the original defective model and the final recon-
structed model. The whole process is illustrated in Fig. (3).
And this reconstructing method does not need to use the data
of the original design model. While as Wilson, et al. have
pointed out, this method is effective only to repair the blade
with middle area damaged, but not the blade with damaged
tip.
134 Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2
Fig. (3). Generate a parameterized geometric model of the repair volume [5].
Fig. (4). Blade tip reconstruction procedure implemented in a RE environment [4].
Fig. (5). The profile build-up method by referring the template [8].
For the blade with the damaged tip, a polygon model of a
worn blade has been reconstructed through the Polyworks
software by Gao et al. [6]. This polygon model can be di-
rectly machined by some CAM systems. Comparing with the
previous methods to reconstruct the damaged blade, the
polygon model has been quicker and less complicated, while
the identification of damaged area still relies on manual
work, which slows the whole repair process. Meanwhile, a
reverse engineering based geometry reconstruction method
has also been developed by Gao et al. [7] for repairing a
blade with a tip defect, which is illustrated in Fig. (4). This
method also needs more manipulation so it is low in the
automation level.
A profile reconstruction algorithm, namely the Robust
Profile Re-construction Algorithm (RPR), has been proposed
by Bryan et al. [8], to reconstruct the model of blade which
is damaged at the tip. In the algorithm, the neutral line con-
cept and the interpretation vector method have been adopted
Tao et al.
to find the relationship between the original profile of the
unused blade and the used blade. Three layers at the undam-
aged sections of the used turbine blade have been measured
and then the two layers near to the bottom have been used to
reconstruct the top layer, which is illustrated in Fig. (5). Ob-
viously, the method of Bryan seriously depends on the model
of unused blade. It is very limited for the situation where the
unused blade cannot be obtained easily.
An adaptive approach, independent of the design model
of blade or one unused, has been developed by Oguzhan et
al. [9] in order to reconstruct the deposited blade tip surface,
as shown in Fig. (5). First, two axial cross section curves
(CSC) C1 and C2 just below the welded portion are refitted
and matched under the constraint of tangency condition.
Second, two radiales RC1 and RC2 that intersect C1 and C2
are created. Third, a top plane (TP) at nominal height of the
blade is also constructed. Then C1 is extended until the TP
along RC1 and RC2 to build the sweep surface. In the Fig.
Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2 135

Fig. (6). Reconstructed sweep surfaces [9].

(6), the reconstructed blade tip surface is shown. Although

the damaged tip model of blade is reconstructed by Oguz-
han’s method, mathematical models of curve C1 and C2
have not been built, and the reconstruction of the tip model
has been operated by manual.
For obtaining the mathematic model of CSC, some re-
searches are done by the authors’ research team and a deduc-
tion methodology is proposed. The flowchart of deducing
CSC equation of broken tip region is illustrated in Fig. (7). It
is divided into five following parts: points pretreating, seg-
menting points, obtaining CSC equations of the un-broken
region, CSC equation deducing of the broken region and
error analyzing. The part of points pretreating includes input-
ting un-broken cross-section points and designing feature
reconfiguration. Segmenting points includes fitting LE and
TE base circle and segmenting cross-section points. Obtain-
ing curve equation of the un-broken region includes fitting
SS and PS curve equation and LE and TE circle equation.
CSC equation deducing of the broken region is composed of
obtaining a number of un-broken cross-section equations and
deducing CSC equation of the broken region. The result is
showed in Figs. (8 and 9). The error analysis indicates that
the current deducing method can be applied on reconstruct-
ing the small-scale broken region of the blade of CSC.
According to the studies above, the CSC is the key factor
in reconstructing the model of damaged blade or undamaged.
And the 3D model of blade can be obtained through lofting a
group of CSCs. For the blade with damaged area in the mid-
dle of blade body, it is easy to reconstruct the model of blade
by lofting. However, for the blade with damaged tip, it is
difficult to rebuild the CSC in damaged tip for some geomet-
ric information is absent. Although some researchers have
proposed some approaches to reconstruct the CSC in the
damaged tip, they are mainly dependent on manual opera- Fig. (7). Flowchart of deducing CSC equation of broken region.
tion, which has resulted in low level of automation. Mean-
while the mathematics model of CSC in the broken tip can-
not be reconstructed in any case, which may influence the
deeper research in the blade repair, such as aerodynamics,
optimizing and so on. Fig. (8). A deduced CSC in broken region.
136 Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2
Fig. (9). The process of remodeling from CSCs to 3D airfoil of
blade.
3. OVERLAY WELDING
Now the fusion welding methods used in blade repair are
self-propagating high-temperature synthesis welding and
braze welding [10]. In the research of Pascal et al. [11], a
local internal generation of heat provided by the NiAl com-
bustion synthesis has been utilized in order to rebuild dam-
aged turbine components. In their process, the local treat-
ment of the turbine components is allowed. Thus the tem-
perature undergone by the whole piece has been minimized.
But since the process requires that the crack surface has high
flatness, it has great limitation to repair complicated shape
blade.
Braze welding has been widely used in repairing all kinds
of aero-engine and gas turbine damaged vanes, which are
worn or cracked, and also in repairing the low stress area of
turbine blade. Su et al. [12] has applied the wide-clearance
activated diffusion brazing technique with various brazing
alloys, namely DF4B and Nicrobraz 150, to restore worn
areas of IN738 components. Liburdi Powder Metallurgy
(LPM) repair technology is used to repair engine hot compo-
nents. In the technology, the configured powder is filled in
the gaps and then sintered in the vacuum. With LPM repair
technology, many defects of three dimensions in the bucket,
such as crack, void, firing-corrosion zone and wear-erosion
area, etc., can be repaired without any damages to the sub-
strate alloy. LPM technology has been more and more
widely applied on the hot components repair of power tur-
bine and aero-engine by some companies, such as General
Electric, Rolls Royce, Siemens Westinghouse, etc. [13].
A brazing welding method has been invented by Lau
et al. [14] for repairing a turbine blade. In his repairing proc-
ess, a crack has been machined out in the platform of a tur-
bine blade, to form a pocket that can receive a plug of com-
patible material. The plug is brazed in place, and meanwhile
the blade is machined and cleaned to present a clean fresh
surface where the plug is inserted. Because of lower coeffi-
cient of thermal expansion of the plug, there are less com-
pressive stresses in the repaired area.
Laser cladding is the most popular fusion welding
method in the study and application of blade repair in recent
years. In this method, laser beam is made use of irradiating
(scanning) alloy powder overlaid on welding seams or other
damaged areas, which results in the micro fuse of the base
metal surface. After the condensation, a low dilution rate
cladding layer has formed in the substrate surface, to achieve
the goal of bridging cracks and repairing the defects [15]. In
MTU, the automated contained laser powder cladding
(CLPC) technology has been utilized to repair the compres-
sor blade damaged at tip area, which can reduce the heat
Tao et al.
affected zone and occurrence of cracking. The qualified rate
of production can be stable at more than 95% [16].
Many researches have been done on the theory and
methodology of repair the blade of Ti base and Ni base with
laser welding. In the research of Klimpe et al. [17], it has
been proposed that it is possible to repair the worn area
abutments of blades of zero compression stage of aircraft
engine turbine by high power diode laser (HPDL) surfacing
with using composite powder mixture of 50%Ti+50%WC as
an additional material, which is illustrated in Fig. (10).
Fig. (10). Automatic composite powder HPDL repair deposit [17].
Laser deposition restoring method for the defect and
wear of TC4, TC6 titanium alloy turbine blade has been
studied by Xue et al. [18, 19]. Through controlling the local
stress and deformation of the parts during restoring, the
geometric properties and mechanical properties of the metal
parts as well as the blade shape are repaired well. Graf et al.
[20] have utilized laser metal deposition to recondition the
damaged areas or cracks. The material has been deposited
into different groove shapes with Ti-6Al-4V. The influence
of welding parameters on the microstructure and the heat
affected zone has been studied, which is illustrated in Fig.
(11). He has found that titanium alloy can be deposited with-
out an additional trailing inert gas nozzle, with low heat in-
put leading to short cooling times.
Laser deposition of Inconel 738 on directionally solidi-
fied (DS) Ni-based super alloy has demonstrated a strong
susceptibility to cracking. Cracks originate from the liqua-
tion of low melting point eutectic on the DS grain boundary.
Zhong et al. [21] have found five boundary liquation and
interface cracking styles. Sound Inconel 738 deposition lay-
ers have been achieved free of cracks. Ye et al. [22] have
repaired the surface crack of vane of engine by twin laser
beams. The microstructures and phases of dendrite crystal of
repaired region have been researched in his paper.
In the research of Jones [23], an integrated production
system is progressed, which combines laser cladding, ma-
chining and in-process scanning in a single machine for
flexible and lean remanufacturing. A compressor blade has
been repaired by this system, as shown in Fig. (12).
In the research of Rottwinkel et al. [24], one method has
been discussed to repair single-crystal (SX) blade cracks,
which are located under the tip-area. It has been pointed out
that the interaction between the inductive preheating and the
dendrite growth has to be analyzed in the next step. Kurz,
et al. [25, 26] have studied how to extend the life cycle of
modern single-crystal high-pressure high-temperature gas
turbine blades and repair the cracked or worn parts.
Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades
Fig. (11). Cross sections and hardness measurement of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V [20].
Fig. (12). A compressor blade has been repaired [47].
In the patent of Cheng et al. [27], one method has been
invented to repair a gas turbine engine component, which is
includes depositing a filler material onto a sulphidation sec-
tion of an underside of a turbine engine platform and laser
consolidating the filler material to produce a restored surface
on the underside. An eroded trailing edge of a turbine airfoil
has been laser cladded to produce a restored trailing edge
thickness.
In the patent of Tewari et al. [28], a laser repair method
has been invented for a high gamma prime content Ni base
super alloy substrate surface, with gamma prime content in
the range of at least about 30 volume %. It conducts the re-
pair at ambient temperature without preheating the substrate
surface and by controlling processing parameters to avoid
cracking of the resulting weld bead during and after welding.
Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2 137
In the patent of Guo et al. [29], a method has been in-
vented for repairing Z-notch wear surfaces on low pressure
gas turbine engine turbine blades. The method allows In-
conel 713 turbine blades to be repaired with the same mate-
rial in a manner that does not generate cracking in the matrix
material.
In the patent of Bouet, et al. [30], a method of repairing a
turbo machine blisk having at least one damaged zone by
build-up of metal in the damaged zone using a laser build-up
welding machine has been disclosed. It includes preparing
the damaged zone by machining the damaged zone to obtain
a zone of defined profile to be repaired, build-up welding of
a start-of-run test piece that includes the defined profile us-
ing the laser build-up welding machine, checking geometric
and metallurgical quality of the test piece, and build-up
138 Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2 Tao et al.

welding the zone of the blisk to be repaired using the laser Likely, one reverse engineering based repair system has
build-up welding machine. been presented by Bremer [32] to adaptively manufacture
and repair the blades and blisks. As shown in Fig. (13), the
In the patent of Zhu et al. [31], one arrangement has been
flexibility of the adaptive approach is demonstrated by dif-
invented for the repair of blisk blades damaged at their lead-
ing and trailing edges by use of laser deposition welding. A ferent applications, which can reshape the straight blade tips,
the blades with special shaped domains, automatically repair
modular, tubular elongated welding apparatus with a connec-
the blisks and adaptively implement belt grinding. In his
tion module connected to a laser source and in which the
method, digitized points have been collected by using a tac-
entering laser beam is deflected in longitudinal direction and
tile system, which uses a touch probe to obtain the point
parallelized, and to one side of the connection module is
cloud data from the part surface. Furthermore, all other nec-
connected to a camera module for a CCD camera enabling
the precise positioning of the welding apparatus and the essary geometric specifications have been taken into consid-
erations during the tool path generation utilizing the devel-
deposition of the molten metal powder on the respective
oped database software which includes a lot of geometries of
blade to be monitored and controlled.
various blades.
Based on the references mentioned before, the laser
welding in repairing blade has been taking place of tradi-
tional welding methods since the heat input can be accurately
controlled, welding speed and cooling speed are both quick
and the heat distortion is smaller. The new advanced trends
of laser welding in repairing blades are to repair the blisk
and the single-crystal blade. In recent years, the patents on
the repairing method and process of the blisk have begun to
be applied for and some researchers have implemented the
automatic repairing on the blisk in the lab. The single-crystal
blade has been applied in the modern aero-engine. However,
the repairing of the single-crystal blade is still absent. Fortu-
nately, some theory researches and experiments on laser re-
pairing of the single-crystal blade have been done.

4. MACHINING
Repair machining of damaged blade needs more attention
than manufacturing a new one since distortion and wears of
blade, and damaged blade tip result in a unique set of prob-
lems. Repair machining of blade is a very competitive mar-
ket and one of the main research interests of many research
centers and corporations, which are sponsored or supported
by well-known turbine-machine producers, such as General
Electric, MTU Aero Engines and so on.
In the past, repair machining of the blades after welding
mainly relied on manual grinding operation of workers,
which had low efficiency, high labor intensity and unstable
processing quality. Recently along with the development of
AMT, automatic blade repair machining has been researched
and applied in industry, which has the advantages of high
precision, small waviness, good machining flexibility,
shorter production cycles, etc. These advantages make the
automated machining become an inevitable trend of aircraft
engine blades repair. Current automation equipments used
for blade parts repairing are the following two categories:
multi-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machining
system for milling or grinding blade and automation grinding
system based on robots.
In the research of Brinksmeir et al. [30, 31], an advanced
maintenance system has been presented for the repairing of
turbine blades, which is based on a multi-axis high-speed
milling center with reverse engineering devices enables to
reshape the damaged blades adaptively with individual geo-
metries due to the functional requirements. An adaptive mill-
ing technique for the purpose of repairing has been adopted
and the geometric information has been obtained by 3D sen-
sors, used for measuring boundary surfaces of turbine blades.
Fig. (13). Different configurations of the digitizing capabilities
[32].
Obviously, the methods mentioned before for adaptive
repairing of blade mainly depend on tactile measuring tech-
nology, which results in low efficiency. For the component
with complex surface like blades, the efficiency of tactile
measuring is even low. Additionally, the digital model data-
base of new blade is necessary for generating the cutting
path, which is compared with the digital model of damaged
blade by measuring. But in most cases, the digital model
database of new blade is unavailable for some reasons.
Recently one adaptively repair machining method has
been presented by Gao and Yilmaz [6, 7, 9], which is inde-
pendent of the digital model of new blade and based on in-
verse engineering with non-contact measuring. During the
stage of machining of welded/deposited blades, a feature
based multi-axis machining strategy has been developed.
This strategy begins with identifying free-form machining
features. After scanning of the blade using a non-contact
digitizer (ATOSII), the forms of the blade are processed or-
derly, which includes cloud points, polygon mesh, section
Recent Repair Technology for Aero-Engine Blades
curves, surface model and free-form surface features. Identi-
fying machining features begins with determination of
boundary curves of welded material on the surface. After
boundary curves are determined by investigating geometric
and parametric continuities and discontinuities between the
deposition and the blade surface, they will be utilized to gen-
erate a multi-axis tool path. Simulations of the generated tool
paths and CNC milling operation are illustrated in Fig. (14).
Fig. (14). (a, b) Simulations of the generated tool paths and (c, d)
CNC milling operation [9].
In industry, IBS, a German enterprise, has developed
abrasive belt polishing grinding machine involving profiling
belt grinder and six-axis CNC machine abrasive belt blade
grinder. Cyril-Adams and Rolls Royce, two British enter-
prises, have respectively produced narrow abrasive belt
grinder and wide belt grinder, used for turbine blades abra-
sive belt polishing. Beijing ShengWei HongJi and Dongfang
Steam Turbine, two Chinese enterprises, have cooperated to
design and develop MK2200 six-axis CNC abrasive belt
grinding machine. Chongqing Sanmo Haida and Xi’an Aero
Engine Company Limited, two Chinese enterprises, have
successfully developed 2MGY5540A-7NC seven-axis high
precision CNC abrasive belt grinding machine, which has
been successfully applied in West Airlines blade fine manu-
facturing center [33].
In recent years, the blade robot flexible manufacturing
system has attracted widespread attention of researchers,
because of its high flexibility, versatility, ease of expansion,
low price and processing costs and other advantages [34,
35].
Advanced Mechatronics Technology for Turbine Blades
Repair (AMATEUR) project has developed a robot grinding
system to repair turbine blade [36], which began in 1996 and
includes seven participating units, such as Zenon S.A.,
Stäubli, etc. The system mainly consists of an industrial ro-
bot, belt grinding machine with power control, coordinate
measuring machines and automatic path programming soft-
ware. However, it is mainly for the blade tip repair. Techni-
cally, although it has adopted coordinate measuring ma-
chines, the method of measurement in situ is not being used.
Force control technique has been used and the concepts and
methods of "adaptive grinding" have been proposed. But it
Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2 139
has no control amount of grinding by adjusting the size of
the force and its adaptive grinding only is limited on geome-
try instead of adapting abrasive belt ageing and other dy-
namic factors.
In the research of Chen et al. [37], a robot grinding pol-
ishing system has been developed for repairing turbine guide
blade, which is illustrated in Fig. (15). It is focused on solv-
ing two problems: (1) geometry differences caused by de-
formation and distortion between blade individual; (2) dy-
namics problems during grinding process. Solutions to part
variations and process dynamics lie in: in-situ profile meas-
urement, optimal profile fitting, adaptive robot path planning
and knowledge-based process control. For estimating grind-
ing, a grinding kinetic equation has been adopted, which is
not perfect. And for abrasive belt aging, a compensation
method has been adopted based on experimental data, while
the number of guide piece during quantization as unit, which
is a bit rough and without considering the effects of surface
geometry on the grinding amount.
In the literature of Huang et al. [38, 39], it is claimed that
the machining based on the robot has certain advantages over
the conventional CNC, which is more high flexible, easier to
be integrated with peripherals such as sensors and external
actuators, and lower cost. A robotic grinding and polishing
system has been developed, which is used to automate the
manual operation of turbine vane overhaul. In the system, a
passive tool compliance tool combined with an adaptive
planning approach is adopted to overcome intrinsic problems
from part-to-part geometry variations. As shown in Fig. (16),
a representative layout of the system is given. The work is
mainly focused on the development of passive compliance
tools, adaptive path planning and tool path optimization for
robotic grinding and polishing. During the removing process,
profile measurements need to be determined accurately as
well as tool position for grinding and polishing of the part.
Fig. (15). Robot blade grinding system [37].
In the patent of Hun et al. [40], a kind of belt grinding
apparatus used for complex curved surface has been in-
vented, which drives contact wheel by way of six-axis link-
age. The work piece only does feeds motion, achieving the
machining at vertical and horizontal two directions and other
parts of workpiece, such as the blade root and edge of sur-
face.
140 Recent Patents on Engineering, 2015, Vol. 9, No. 2
Fig. (16). Robotic grinding and polishing system layout [39].
Based on the references mentioned before on repair ma-
chining for welded blades, it is concluded that the researches
are mainly focused on improving the automatic level includ-
ing automatic measuring of welded blade, automatic remod-
eling, automatic generating of tool path and so on. Especially
although remodeling of welded blade may utilize some soft-
ware for reverse engineering and 3D modeling, it still needs
many manual operations, which reduce the repair process
automation. In addition, the tool path generating is often
relied on the model of unused blade or design model which
is usually unavailable. The efficient method independent of
the unused blade model needs to be improved continually.
For the machining blade robot systems, except the exiting
problems same as multi-axis machining systems, there are
still some extra shortcomings which need to be improved,
such as low machining precision, poor stiffness characteris-
tics, detection accuracy and flexibility of the process and so
on. These may be the development and research directions of
blade robot machining systems.
5. CURRENT & FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Auto-repair technology for aero-engine blade has become
more and more important in blade maintenance and
overhaul. Considerable research results have been obtained
in this field and a lot of successful experiences have also
been learned. In addition, extra work is needed in the future
so as to make this technology to be further adapted in the
industry.
In terms of reconstructing damaged blade models, many
researchers enforce the geometrical elements of blade on the
process. For the tip area damaged blade or middle area dam-
aged blade, there are respectively corresponding modeling
methods. For the blade with damaged area in blade body, it
is easy to reconstruct the model of blade by lofting. How-
ever, for the blade with damaged tip, it is difficult to rebuild
the CSC in damaged tip since some geometric information is
absent. Although some researchers have proposed some ap-
proaches to reconstruct the CSC in the damaged tip, they are
mainly dependent on manual operation, which has resulted
in low level of automation. In addition, the mathematics
model of CSC in the broken tip cannot be reconstructed in
Tao et al.
any case, which may influence the deeper researches in the
blade repair, such as aerodynamics, optimizing and so on.
Since laser cladding has the features of accurate heat in-
put control, high cooling speed, small heat distortion and
saving high performance materials, it has been taking place
of traditional welding methods in repairing blade. The new
advance trends of laser welding for repairing blades are to
repair the blisk and the single-crystal blade. In addition, fur-
ther studies are also continually required in the crack control
and forming theory.
The automated machining has become an inevitable trend
of blade restoring after welding. Multi-axis CNC machining
centers and robot machining systems are gradually replacing
human hand-polished approaches. For the multi-axis CNC
machining, the researches are mainly focused on improving
the automatic level including automatic measuring of welded
blade, automatic remodeling, and automatic generating of
tool path. Especially the automatic remodeling of welded
blade needs to be improved greatly. Additionally, the method
of generating tool path independent of the original model
still needs research. For the machining blade robot systems,
there are still some extra problems needing to be improved,
such as low machining precision, poor stiffness characteris-
tics, detection accuracy and flexibility of the process and so
on.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors confirm that this article content has no con-
flict of interest.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was sponsored by United National Science
Funds and Civil Aviation Funds (No. U1333121) and Tianjin
Science Founds for Youth (No. 14JCQNJC05000). It was
also supported in part by the Research Starting Funds of
Civil Aviation University of China (No. 09QD05S) and Ba-
sic Research Funds for National University
(No.3122014D012).
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