CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
6 December 2005
Events News
Geomagic Introduces Geomagic Blade, Purpose-Built for Turbine Blade Inspection
Geomagic is demonstrating Geomagic Blade, the first software extension developed specifically for turbine blade inspection, at Power-Gen International in Las Vegas. Geomagic Blade is purpose-built to satisfy the need for greater ease of use, speed and quality in all areas of turbine blade inspection, including aerospace, turbine-generated power grid, propulsion turbines, specialized compression equipment, and others.
Geomagic Blade extends Geomagic Qualify computer-aided inspection (CAI) software to provide special features that have been tested and verified by leading turbo-machinery companies such as GE Power Systems, Honeywell, Howmet, PCC Airfoils LLC, Pratt & Whitney, Solar Turbines, Siemens and others. Geomagic Qualify automatically processes scan data from a physical part, enabling instant graphical comparisons between CAD models and as-built parts. It is used for first-article inspection, tool validation, wear analysis, object alignment, GD&T, and reporting.
"Geomagic Blade provides buttons for automatically analyzing many of the properties that are at the heart of turbine machinery inspection," says Rick Skelley of PCC Airfoils LLC, a leading manufacturer of aircraft engine blades and vanes, and industrial gas turbines. "The new functionality is nicely integrated with Geomagic Qualify and is right on the mark for the turbine machinery industry."
Automated turbine blade inspection
Geomagic worked in cooperation with leading companies in the aerospace, turbine and power-generation industries to develop functionality that makes it easier and faster to inspect and analyze turbine blades.
In testing conducted with leading turbine blade manufacturers, Geomagic Blade has proven superior to traditional inspection in three important ways:
• generating reproducible test results based on 3D models derived from millions of points, which increases test confidence and complements traditional CMM analysis;
• increasing inspection and analysis speed by collecting data with non-contact scanners and processing it with patented technology from Geomagic Qualify; and
• providing easy access to dedicated functions that test critical turbine blade attributes and automatically generate numerical and graphical reports of results.
Geomagic Blade includes new alignment techniques designed specifically for turbine blade inspection. A line target datum simulates surface contact with the cylindrical sidewall of a pin. This enables users to align with edge-to-pin contact that is typically used for turbine blade analysis.
Blade section analysis within Geomagic Blade provides graphical inspection for airfoil characteristics such as mean (camber) line, max thickness, leading-edge and trailing-edge radii, thickness at offsets from the blade ends, chord lengths (axial, max and parallel), and twist angles.
Geomagic Blade also includes 2D twist analysis, which in the past has been difficult to accurately analyze using the limited point data from CMM. The software allows a cross section of a model to be aligned with reference data to determine the twist of the blade. Constraints can be placed on maximum rotation and twist tolerance.
Complete turbine machinery solutions
Geomagic Blade is part of a complete set of digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP) tools for the turbine machinery industry. It is an extension to Geomagic Qualify, the world's number-one selling CAI software. Geomagic Studio software is the leading solution for reverse engineering, fabrication and refurbishment of as-built components, and provides more accurate models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and FEA simulation. Geomagic Review, downloadable for free, enables team sharing of analysis results for e-collaboration and quick decision-making throughout the extended enterprise.
"DSSP from Geomagic signals a shift from slow, manual tools requiring a great deal of expertise, to fast, automated processes that increase test and analysis coverage per blade and assembly," says Alberto Griffa, senior product manager for Geomagic Qualify.
Available now
Geomagic Blade is available now in English, German, Chinese, Japanese and French languages from Geomagic and its worldwide distributors.
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