Skills Used: NX, Cad Drawings, Mechanical Design, Prototyping, 3D Printing, Problem Solving, Communication, GD&T
Project Dates: Summer-Fall 2021
Additional Documentation Available: No, everything stayed with Chromalloy Nevada
Project Description:
I was handed an old project that had been shelved for a while but needed to be completed soon. This project involved developing a new fixture which would hold turbine blades in a robot, for a robotic grit blast process. The fixture needed to hold at least 1 specific type of blade (with the possibility of 6 others), be easy to use, as well as easy and inexpensive to manufacture as the design would be sent out for manufacturing. The original fixtures were all wore out, did not properly fit the blades that they now needed to, and had not been liked by operators for being too “clunky” to use.
Project Results:
I was able to successfully design and prototype a fixture that not only held the main blade, but all 7 possible blades. I was also able to make sure that it was simple enough to be made in house by our tooling department, if necessary, but that also meant inexpensive if outsourced as planned. The fixture would be able to flow air through the blades as required and was very fast to change out blades (good for the operators). To design this fixture, I collaborated a lot with the tooling department machinist for best practices and recommendations, as well as other engineers for help with proper GD&T, and design recommendations. I wanted to ensure that it could be manufactured without an issue and would fulfill all requirements. During the process I also utilized the department 3D printer to test iterations on actual blades, which greatly reduced the amount of time required to finalize a design.
Robot similar to the one used for the Grit Blast process 
Example of Turbine blade roots