Design, Motion-planning, and Manufacturing of Custom-shaped Tools for 5-axis Super Abrasive Machinig of a Turbomachinery Blade Type Component

Abstract Turbomachinery components are evolving towards increasing complexity to achieve enhanced efficiency. Turbine blades are being designed using free-form surfaces and generated by Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS). Custom-shaped tools are presented as a solution to improve the productivity of super abrasive machining processes for complex geometries, meeting the high standards required for rotating turbomachinery components. The adaptability and flexibility of these new tool concepts are specifically designed to better fit the target of freeform surfaces. This paper presents a blade type component finished with a custom-shaped tool designed through an optimization process that simultaneously optimizes both the shape of the tool and its motion. The proposed method with SAM finishing using a custom-shaped tool is compared against a standard tool and traditional machining process. The result obtained on the blade test case show that the custom-shaped tools need fewer paths, yet produce more accurate surface finish.