Turbine blade manufacturing through rapid tooling (RT) process and its quality inspection

Rapid prototyping (RP) technologies have played vital role in product development and validation. Another aspect of RP is rapid tooling (RT). The development and manufacturing of conventional tools (die and molds) take considerable amount of time. RP technologies could be used to shorten the development time of these tools for shorten the time to production. This investigation focuses on the development of turbine blade through RT technique with quality inspection at three different stages, i.e., after manufacturing of master patterns, wax patterns, and casting in metal. Three different materials were considered for RT techniques, i.e., Room temperature vulcanization (RTV) silicon, polyurethane, and plaster of Paris. Master patterns were developed using stereolithography(SLA) and fused deposition modeling (FDM) process. Both master patterns were analyzed for surface roughness and dimensional accuracy. SLA pattern showed better results for surface finish and dimensional accuracy, and it was used for mold manufacturing. Wax patterns were produced from RTV silicon, polyurethane (PU), and plaster of Paris molds,and used for metal casting. Dimensional quality inspection was performed for both wax and metallic parts using noncontact three-dimensional (3D)digitizer. RTV silicon and SLA process were selected as the suitable mold material and process respectively for RT of turbine blade.