Investigation of a force-guided assembly strategy for radial mounting of jet engine blades

Abstract

Increasing air traffic and growing pressure on costs in aviation MRO, especially for jet engines, demand for an increase of process efficiency. While research concentrates on inspection and repair methods, the potential for automated reassembly is thereby mostly neglected. An approach for automated assembly of compressor and turbine blades is introduced in [1]. Part of this approach is a force-guided assembly, which is performed by an industrial robot. The aim of this force-guidance is to compensate positioning deviations, which can occur at different steps throughout the assembly process. Furthermore, sticking of blades during tangential movement, as a consequence of tilting, needs to be avoided. In this paper the proposed force-guided assembly strategy is investigated concerning its capacity of fulfilling the two claims stated above. Therefore, the hardware setup which is used to conduct the assembly and the process execution are described, as well as sources of positioning deviations are identified. Furthermore, the implementation of the force-control on the specific type of robot controller is described. Applying this force-control multiple experiments with defined positioning deviations are conducted. Furthermore, variations of additional assembly parameters are taken into account. The subsequent evaluation will allow a comparison of deviations, occurring during assembly process and the ability to compensate them. Potential for further optimization is stated in the conclusion.