Gas turbine blade manufacturing by use of epoxy resin tooling and silicone rubber molding techniques
Purpose Conventional investment casting of turbine blades is a time consuming and expensive process due to the complications in wax injection steps and the complex shape of airfoil surfaces. By using rapid investment casting, a substantial improvement in the gas turbine blade manufacturing process can be expected. However, this process needs to be able to compete with conventional investment casting from a dimensional accuracy view of point. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the manufacture of gas turbine blades via two indirect rapid tooling (RT) technologies, namely epoxy (EP) resin tooling and silicon rubber molding.Design/methodology/approach The second stage blade of a Ruston TA 1750 gas turbine (rated at 1.3 MW) was digitized by a coordinate measuring machine. The aluminum filled EP resin and silicon rubber molds were fabricated using StereoLithography master models. Several wax patterns were made by injection in the EP resin and silicone rubber molds. These wax patterns were utilized