E-Archive

Articles

in Vol. 3 - November Issue - Year 2002
"Top Hats" No Problem

Rolls-Royce Operations & Engineering Technology unit at Annesley have recently purchased and installed a purpose built Rösler R180 vibratory bowl finishing machine, to polish Rolls-Royce EJ200 Engine LPC2 Blisks after friction welding.

Friction welding is used to weld the aerfoils to the disc and form a blisk. The friction weld line has to be polished out, in order to retain the laminar flow characteristics, that are so important to the efficiency of the component.

Although vibratory finishing seemed the obvious way of polishing the part, its „Top Hat“ feature prevented the use of a standard machine with centre column.
Rolls-Royce discussed the problem with Rösler, and they in turn offered a vibratory bowl with a flat bottom, allowing the „Top Hat“ feature on the part to act as the machine centre column. The action in the machine is excellent giving good media coverage over all airflow surfaces.
The Rolls-Royce selection criteria was based on:

1) Rapid response by Rösler to a Rolls-Royce problem;

2) Quality of equipment;

3) Short lead time

For Information:
Rösler UK
Unity Grove, School Lane
Knowsley Business Park, Prescot,
Merseyside, L34 9GT, England
Tel: +44.151.482 0444  
Fax: +44.151. 482 4400  
E-mail: rosler@rosleruk.com  
Website: www.rosleruk.com