Like the two teams before them, Hopkins, Macintosh, and Hollan are completing their Major Qualifying Project (MQP), a team-based, professional-level design or research experience that every WPI student must complete. Kenneth Stafford, a teaching professor in the Office of Undergraduate Studies and the director of WPI’s Robotics Resource Center, is co-advisor for this year’s project team: seniors Michael Hopkins, Kevin Macintosh, and Nicholas Hollan Hopkins is a robotics engineering major Macintosh and Hollan are majoring in computer science. If the blisk isn’t machined properly, it could destroy the engine.” “This is the spinning part of a jet engine, so it’s subject to huge forces. “It’s important for the blisk to be perfect,” said senior instructor Craig Putnam, associate director of WPI’s Robotics Engineering program and an advisor on the GE Aviation blisk research project. Critical components for the engines that power the Airbus A320neo family and the Boeing 737MAX aircraft series, blisks need to be flawless, since a failure could cause an engine to shut down during flight.
BLISK DESTROY ALL HUMANS SOFTWARE
Students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are completing a three-year project that could help GE Aviation use robotics to inspect a critical component of jet engines with greater accuracy and less physical stress on human workers.Ī team of three undergraduates, the third team to work on the project, is completing the hardware and software needed to enable a robot to inspect jet engine parts known as blisks (from bladed disks), which are compressor blades and rotor disks made as a single part. (blisks) used in jet engines made by GE Aviation Inspectors in checking the quality of bladed disks The inspection system, which is designed to aid human Processīlisks can be produced with several different manufacturing processes, including CNC milling, Investment casting, electro chemical machining, or welding (such as linear friction welding ).The undergraduate project team makes adjustments to IBR blades must undergo rigorous harmonic vibration testing as the natural damping of the dovetail attachement of a typical turbine blade is no longer present. Maintenance of this nature cannot be done on the flightline and often must be performed at a specialized facility.
BLISK DESTROY ALL HUMANS FULL
DisadvantagesĪny damage to IBR blades beyond minor dents requires the full removal of the engine so that the IBR may be replaced or, if possible, replacement blades welded on.
BLISK DESTROY ALL HUMANS CRACK
In addition, the removal of the dovetail attachment found on traditional turbine blades eliminates a common source for crack initiation and subsequent propagation.
This eliminates the need to attach the blades to the disk (via screws, bolts, etc.), thus decreasing the number of components within the compressor, while at the same time decreasing drag and increasing efficiency of air compression within the engine. Instead of making bare compressor disks and attaching the blades later on in the process, blisks are single elements combining the two. Examples include the Rocketdyne RS-68 rocket engine and the General Electric F110 turbofan.Įngine manufacturer CFM International is using blisk technology in the compressor section of its Leap-X demonstrator engine program, which has completed full-scale rig testing. Since then, its use has continued to increase in major applications for both compressors and fan blade rotors. It was first used by Sermatech-Lehr (now known as Teleflex Aerospace ) in 1985 for the compressors of the T700 helicopter engine. Blisk manufacturing has been used since the mid 1980s.