Processing times cut

The surface finish of blisks (“Blade Integrated Disks”) in airplane and other turbines affects the airflow characteristics and, thus, the overall efficiency, fuel consumption and noise emissions.

To date the surface finishing of blisks was done manually with grinding disks and other manually operated tools. Due to the “human factor” the quality of the final finish could greatly vary between work pieces. Frequently, it could even happen that certain surface areas were not finished at all.

For the consistent and high quality finishing of circular high value components Walther Trowal redesigned the rotary vibrator “CM” in close cooperation with leading turbine manufacturers to make it more suitable for treating all kinds of turbine components.

Starting with an initial surface roughness of Ra = 4 to 5 µm, the desired finishing results are achieved within about five to six hours whereas the manual finishing of blisks can take several days.