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Low-pressure turbine blade leading edge protection using robotic laser cladding technology

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Abstract

Low-pressure turbine blades are the most erosion-exposed moving parts of the steam turbine. This article brings a detailed overview of an innovative system applying a stellite coating to the leading edge of the steam turbine blades using the robotic laser cladding technology. The system is based on a software that gathers scanned data of the shape-specific workpiece from a laser profile scanner, creates a 3D model of the workpiece and generates a set of laser cladding trajectories that are used for the task of robot navigation during the laser cladding process. The navigation algorithm accounts for the workpiece-specific requirements of the laser cladding process as well as collision avoidance necessities. The shape and thickness of the resulting layer of the laser-cladded coating alloy are verified by an external 3D scanning system showing the compliance of the system with the requirements as well as a space for future development. The feasibility of the developed method is also verified by multiple material and metallographic tests.

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Funding

This work was supported from ERDF under project “Research Cooperation for Higher Efficiency and Reliability of Blade Machines (LoStr)” No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_026/ 0008389.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czechia

    Ondřej Vaníček, Michal Chaluš & Jindřich Liška

  2. Doosan Škoda Power s.r.o. (DSPW), Pilsen, Czechia

    Tomáš Glusa & Jakub Vlasák

  3. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czechia

    Eva Vašíčková

  4. LaserTherm s.r.o., Pilsen, Czechia

    Karel Brom

Authors
  1. Ondřej Vaníček
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  2. Michal Chaluš
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  3. Jindřich Liška
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  4. Tomáš Glusa
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  5. Jakub Vlasák
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  6. Eva Vašíčková
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  7. Karel Brom
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Contributions

The used measurement, processing and robot control software was developed by Michal Chaluš, Jindřich Liška and Ondřej Vaníček. The leading edge detection, clad bead emplacement and collision avoidance algorithm was developed by Ondřej Vaníček. The cladding area design was proposed by Tomáš Glusa and Jakub Vlasák. The laser cladding process was performed by Karel Brom and his colleagues. The verification 3D scanning and geometric analysis was performed by Eva Vašíčková. The material tests were performed by Tomáš Glusa. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Ondřej Vaníček, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ondřej Vaníček.

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Vaníček, O., Chaluš, M., Liška, J. et al. Low-pressure turbine blade leading edge protection using robotic laser cladding technology. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 122, 2543–2559 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10006-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-10006-8

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