A major power generation company came to Ahaus because they needed a fixture that could inspect turbine blades. These turbine blades often get bent or damaged in the field, and the company needed an efficient fixture that could quickly assess the blades and determine if a blade had been repaired properly or needed additional work.
One of the problems the company consistently ran into was that the turbine blades were not locating in the fixture as they should’ve been, because the blades were not standing in a straight and precise manner. Ahaus designed a gage with indicators to check the top of each blade so it could be compared and corrected to the right dimensions of the end product.
Ahaus’ engineers received feedback from the customer that they were able to implement this process in their manufacturing plants and facilities, speeding up the manufacturing process by determining early on if the blades were usable or not. This way, the customer didn’t have to work on a blade that was not usable or repairable.
This project is one of many that Ahaus engineers have built in tandem with their customer. “It has opened doors and allowed us access to other projects for them as well,” said sales engineer Jim Lucas. “I see this project also allowing us to move a little farther forward with this particular company and help develop some other engaging processes.”
