Process and apparatus for locating coated cooling holes on turbine vanes
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A process for locating cooling holes on a part comprising the steps of:
- providing a part having a region of cooling holes covered by a coating;
using a heater to heat said part substantially uniformly so as to exploit thermal conductivity properties of different portions of said part; and
identifying the locations of said coated cooling holes by generating a high contrast thermal image of said part and said region of coated cooling holes.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to processes and systems for locating coated cooling holes on parts such as turbine vanes. In a first embodiment of the present invention, a thermal imaging technique is utilized to obtain the locations of the cooling holes on a turbine vane. In a second embodiment of the present invention, a laser scanning technique is utilized to obtain the locations of the cooling holes on a turbine vane.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A process for locating cooling holes on a part comprising the steps of:
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providing a part having a region of cooling holes covered by a coating;
using a heater to heat said part substantially uniformly so as to exploit thermal conductivity properties of different portions of said part; and
identifying the locations of said coated cooling holes by generating a high contrast thermal image of said part and said region of coated cooling holes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A process for locating coated cooling holes on a part comprising the steps of:
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providing a part having a region of coated cooling holes;
heating said part;
identifying the locations of said coated cooling holes by generating a high contrast thermal image of said part and said region of coated cooling holes;
said identifying step comprises generating two dimensional geometry information about the location of each cooling hole in said region and one dimensional temperature information for each cooling hole in said region;
said identifying step further comprising calculating the position of each said cooling hole in said region using said two dimensional geometry information and said one dimensional temperature information; and
said calculating step comprising drawing isothermal lines and connecting points at the same temperature;
determining slopes between adjacent ones of said isothermal lines; and
determining a Z-depth at a given location from the temperature at said location. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A system for locating coated cooling holes in parts which comprises:
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a heater for substantially uniformly heating a part having a surface with a plurality of cooling holes;
an infra red camera for scanning said surface of said part and for generating a thermal image of said scanned surface; and
a computer for determining the locations of said cooling holes from said thermal image. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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Specification