AV&R's Robotic Polishing Systems

AV&R has developed robotic polishing systems for manufacturing parts with controlled material removal. These parts are:

• Gas Turbine Parts
  Our robotic systems work on the airfoil surface finish, the platform, the shroud radius, the fillet radius and the three-dimensional airfoil-platform transition. They can also perform pin removal on cored airfoils, profile the leading edge and thin the trailing edge.
• Orthopaedic Implants
  Our machines polish different surfaces of prosthesis implants such as knee box and hip stem.

For average material removal between 25 and 125 µm (between 1 and 5 mils), our automatic polishing equipment ensures a consistency of ± 15 µm (± 0.6 mil) from one part to another.

Our team has developed this automated polishing equipment to polish manufacturing parts ensuring a consistent surface finish that keeps within your tight tolerances. These systems use closed-loop with inspection feedback, depending on the type of finish to be performed.

Automated Polishing Benefits

When you replace manual polishing or surface finishing by a fully capable robotic system, you:

• Increase production quality and repeatability
• Reduces the risk of worker injuries
• Minimize the harmful effects of dust with an integrated dust collector
• Optimize tool use resulting in reduced abrasive costs
• Get faster cycle times
• Reduce labour costs
• Save time and ensure quality by combining automated inspection and validation in the same system

Main Technologies for Gas Turbine Parts

• Polishing airfoil, the platform, the fillet radius and pins
• Tri-plane blending (tri-blend)
• Thinning the trailing edge
• Leading edge and trailing edge profiling
• Chord length feedback
• Wall or coating thickness feedback

Options

• Ultra-polishing, creating a mirror-surface finish
• Part cleaning after the polishing operation
• Integrated dust collection
• Automated tool change