![\"Turbine](\"https:\/\/robodk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Turbine-Blades.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nControlling the temperature of gas turbines is critical to develop more efficient gas turbines. Turbine blades are the limiting component of gas turbines. To survive in these extreme conditions, turbine blades use cooling methods such as internal air channels.<\/p>\n
The introduction of additive manufacturing (3D printing) has enabled designers to create new designs in less time. Turbine blade 3D printing also allows improving the cooling systems by using more complex labyrinth air channels. However, the classical inspection and thermal validation proces is a bottleneck in the manufacturing process.<\/p>\n
Thermal Mapping with Temperature Memory Materials<\/h2>\n
Sensor\u00a0Coating\u00a0Systems<\/a>\u00a0specializes in thermal coating technology for turbine blades.\u00a0They provide an automated solution for temperature mapping and blade inspection in extreme environments.<\/p>\n This thermal mapping technology consists of a sensor coating that records the maximum temperature to which the blades have been exposed. This memory sensor allows reading the temperature off-line.<\/p>\n Sensor Coating Systems provides a novel, unique measurement technique to measure high temperature in machinery which is operated under combustion conditions or in any other hot conditions. The novel automated process enables the temperature mapping to be digitized to accelerate the engineering design process and improve significantly the validation processes.<\/p>\n Dr. Jorg Feist,<\/p>\n Managing Director, Sensor Coating Systems Ltd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The temperature mapping is done automatically with a robot. Furthermore, the temperature distribution is directly projected onto the designer’s CAD drawing. This blade inspection method allows validating that the maximum temperature was not exceeded and the turbine cooling system works properly.<\/p>\n Sensor Coating Systems’ Patented technology provides the following benefits:<\/p>\n Sensor Coating Systems’ thermal mapping technology decreases the time needed for validation because it makes the automated inspection easier.<\/p>\n Sensor Coating Systems implemented this thermal inspection system using an industrial robot. More precisely, an ABB IRB1200 robot arm. They also use RoboDK software for simulation and offline programming. With RoboDK you can accomplish robot programming offline. In this case, a program made in Python<\/a> guides the robot during the blade inspection process.\u00a0Robot programming is an important step to make sure the location of the part is appropriate and all the inspection points can be reached. The simulation can quickly show any program issues that you could have. These issues include:\u00a0<\/span>reachability, robot singularities and\u00a0collision detection. The simulation happens offline without using the real robot.<\/span><\/p>\n The script executes the simulation and programmed in RoboDK and moves the robot through various locations of the part. The robot takes temperature measurements with a probe at the desired locations. Finally, an automated algorithm maps the measurements to the 3D model of the part.<\/p>\n We used RoboDK to integrate with an industrial robot for the first time with great development speed and a steep learning curve.<\/p>\n Dr. Alexander Leibinger,<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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Automated Blade Inspection<\/h2>\n
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\nAutomation & Instrumentation Engineer at Sensor Coating Systems Ltd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n