How a leading aerospace manufacturer automated turbine blade grinding, polishing & inspection
From operator-dependent finishing to a repeatable, closed-loop manufacturing process that reduces cycle times and increases throughput.
>95%
Ready rate after 1st grinding
<0.05%
Scrap rate
<1hr
Batch time for 2 blades
Customer Profile
Industry: Aerospace
Location: Asia
Components: High-precision turbine blades
Production Environment: High-volume
Automation for turbine blade airfoil & edges:
-
Rough & fine grinding
-
Polishing
-
Dimensional inspection
How to increase throughput without jeopardizing precision?
This leading Asian aerospace manufacturer produces precision turbine blades that require tight control of complex airfoil geometries, including leading and trailing edges, profiles, radii, platforms, and other critical blade features.
Variability during finishing directly affected the dimensional conformity of these blades and created additional inspection and rework for the production team.
Rising demand and customer delivery expectations meant this manufacturer had to increase throughput while reducing its dependence on manual finishing expertise.
Challenge
Turbine blades present an unusual manufacturing challenge.
Unlike simpler machined components, their aerodynamic surfaces contain continuously changing curvature, thin leading and trailing edges, complex transitions, and tight dimensional requirements.
Traditional finishing relied heavily on skilled operators. An experienced technician
could compensate for variations from blade to blade — but that expertise was difficult to standardize across operators, shifts, and increasing production volumes.
Turbine blade finishing was no longer scaling with repeatable accuracy for this manufacturer.
Operator dependent polishing method
Led to variation between shifts and technicians
Growing labor needs with more production
Limited ability to move toward unattended production
Repeated inspection & rework cycles
Led to excessive material handling between operations
Difficulty maintaining consistent material removal
Risk of removing too much material from high-value components
The solution
Control the process, not just automate the motion.
Closing the Loop Between Inspection & Manufacturing
Rather than deploying a conventional robot programmed to follow the same path on every component, MTL Precision integrated high-speed precision measurement, robotic motion, controlled material removal, and process software into one manufacturing workflow.
This smart software system determined the specific requirements of each blade to perform the next appropriate manufacturing operation accurately and consistently.
01
Automated blade handling
Trays of 50 blades mounted into the automated cell & positioned for processing without continuous operator intervention.
02
High-speed optical inspection
Before corrective processing, robot moves blades to inspection where a high-speed line-laser scans dimensional measurements. Results drive next steps, determining the level of correction.
03
Intelligent robotic grinding
Robotic system controls material removal across complex geometries like airfoils, leading & trailing edges. Intelligent force feedback maintains consistent interaction between tool & blade.
04
Automated polishing
Following rough & fine grinding, robotic system performs controlled grinding & polishing of the airfoil, leading and trailing edges.
05
Accuracy verification
After polishing, robot performs final inspection using the same high-speed line-laser scanning for dimensional measurements.
Have a turbine blade process you want to automate?
Whether your bottleneck is grinding, polishing, inspection, rework, material handling — or the movement between all of them — we can evaluate the process to determine and deliver the most effective automation approach.
Bring us your hardest blade.
We'll show you how our automation can make the biggest difference.
