Optomec/Acme Manufacturing
ACME Turnkey Aerospace Blade Repair System
Optomec Inc. and Acme Manufacturing have partnered to produce an “industry first”. The companies have created a fully automated work cell initially optimised for repairing aviation compressor blades made of titanium.
The turnkey work cell is the product of a two-year collaboration between the companies, working with input from commercial maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) and US Department of Defense repair centres for aircraft engines.
The automated work cell has a repair capacity of 85,000 titanium compressor blades per year and according to the company, provides a “compelling” ROI when compared with traditional CNC machines and manual TIG welding. Technologies used in the cell are commercially available and have been certified by civil authorities around the world, says Optomec and Acme.
The entry level work cell consists of three stations that enable robotic blade tip grinding, 3D additive laser cladding and robotic post clad finishing. The cell also features an automated pallet load/unload station, a pallet flipping station, and a robotic material handling system.
According to the companies, each machine in the work cell is automatically adjusting tool paths to accommodate blade-to-blade variations resulting from normal wear and distortion during service. The Optomec CS-250 5-axis laser cladding machine is used to produce precision welds for titanium compressor blades utilising proprietary LENS Directed Energy Deposition (DED) and AutoCLAD advanced vision and adaptive tool-pathing technology in a controlled argon atmosphere.
The Acme Manufacturing MRO blade tip repair machines can be configured for blade tip grinding, weld blending, and polishing. The system is equipped with what the companies claim is the first of its kind auto path generation, which allows for a high mix, low volume environment. The partners also claim that it is three to four times faster than traditional CNC machines.
Mike Dean, VP of Marketing at Optomec, said: “Our collaboration with Acme Manufacturing has brought together complementary technologies that provide a compelling business case for customers. Demanding repair requirements, driven by commercial and DoD repair centres, has led Optomec to enhance our DED capabilities to enable high volume, high yield repair for compressor blades, an especially challenging objective for titanium parts.”
G.A. “Fritz” Carlson III, President and CEO of Acme Manufacturing, said: “Acme has delivered over 200 robotic material removal systems to the aerospace industry in the past 35 years largely for new part manufacturing. By utilising efficient and repeatable robotic finishing technology, we can enable MRO engine repair centres to improve overall component quality and help lower unit costs. I am excited about our teams’ developments in auto path generation, which allows us to enter a new market of automated material removal systems.”
Dean spoke to TCT earlier this year about application opportunities for Direct Energy Deposition 3D printing.
