Aerospace: Mission accomplished

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aerospace

Aerospace: Mission accomplished

From pilot to reference customer – Starrag ensures precision without compromises with ZEISS solution.

Starrag develops and produces manufacturing solutions for the aerospace industry. In order to shorten the measuring times for turbine blades, the Swiss company was the first in the world to work with the ZEISS PRISMO fortis coordinate measuring machine as part of a pilot project.

Customers react with fascination and great amazement when they see how accurately and quickly turbine blades can be measured on a ZEISS PRISMO fortis with ZEISS CMM Acceleration Mode for Aerospace Applications. Roland Ziltener, Plant Director at Starrag AG, Rorschacherberg, understands the amazement of his colleagues. “Speed and maximum precision didn’t go together for a long time.” In the aerospace industry, where components such as turbine blades have to be fully inspected after each production step, “quality assurance therefore quickly becomes a bottleneck.” Using more measuring devices is not a solution for Ziltener. “To ensure reliable and profitable production, you need very fast and reliable feedback as to whether the components meet the high quality requirements.”

Customer requirements have top priority

Ziltener knows what he’s talking about. This is because customers from all over the world come to Rorschacherberg with their specific tasks to obtain suitable machining centres for the production of turbine blades, blisks, impellers, casings and other aircraft applications. Starrag designs the respective production solution with the appropriate fixtures based on the specified requirements for the number of units or running time of the components. Customers often want a complete solution that ranges from the processing machine and tool production through to metrology programming. According to Ziltener, Starrag is therefore “not only familiar with the requirements of the industry, but is also at the cutting edge of technology in many areas, including measurement technology.”

Pilot projects secure market leadership

For Ivan Nytsch, Head of Global Customer Segment Aerospace at ZEISS, Starrag was and is “an ideal pilot customer”. This is also because the provider of complete solutions is very familiar with its customers’ manufacturing processes. And this is where things come full circle for Nytsch. Because ZEISS also understands its customers’ processes and develops customised solutions. ZEISS has responded to the aerospace industry’s challenge of measuring aerospace components with high precision, reliability and speed by expanding the PRISMO family with the ZEISS PRISMO 7/12/7 fortis coordinate measuring machine.

“ Starrag has set new standards in quality assurance with this pilot project in an industry that requires the highest precision in production and quality control.”

Roland Ziltener, Plant Director, Starrag

Fascination for a new solution

Roland Ziltener, who was still Head of Quality Management at Starrag at that time, remembers the start of the project well. “We had a look at the machine in Oberkochen and were immediately impressed.” In order to check whether the new development delivers the required precision despite the huge optimisation of the measuring time, all turbine blades manufactured by Starrag on behalf of partner customers were measured with the ZEISS PRISMO fortis over a period of one and a half years. As the size, material and geometry of the turbine blades are different, the machine was “widely tested”, according to Ziltener. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the ZEISS PRISMO fortis, the measurement results were compared with reference values from the ZEISS PRISMO navigator.

As both coordinate measuring machines were located in the same measuring laboratory, it was possible to rule out the possibility of external factors influencing the results.

In order to check whether the new development delivers the required precision despite the huge optimisation of the measuring time, all turbine blades manufactured by Starrag on behalf of partner customers were measured with the ZEISS PRISMO fortis over a period of one and a half years.

Cooperation at eye level

As Starrag had already been working with the ZEISS CALYPSO software for many years, the implementation of the solution on site went smoothly. And even during the pilot phase, Ziltener and Nytsch agree that Starrag and ZEISS worked closely together “on an equal footing at all times”. For example, the measurement data was discussed together in regular meetings. ZEISS used this information to further optimise the start-up and acceleration behaviour of the rotary table and the machine. ZEISS also simplified the usability of the machine and the creation of test plans during the pilot phase. The performance of the ZEISS PRISMO fortis equipped with the ZEISS CMM Acceleration Mode for Aerospace Applications package still impresses Ziltener today. “Despite the shorter measuring time, the precision is maintained without any compromises.”

“ Starrag is not only familiar with the requirements of the industry, but is also at the cutting edge of measurement technology.”

Roland Ziltener, Plant Director, Starrag

The standard measurement, which took four minutes and 30 seconds at Starrag and delivered accurate and reproducible results, was reduced to 70 seconds during the pilot phase.

Convincing results

The quality assurance of turbine blades and blisks is not only subject to very strict requirements, it also costs companies a lot of money. Experience has shown that quality assurance accounts for 20 per cent of total production costs and 25 per cent of total production time. The pilot project showed that productivity in the measurement of turbine blades can be significantly increased with ZEISS PRISMO fortis. The standard measurement, which took four minutes and 30 seconds at Starrag and delivered accurate and reproducible results, was reduced to 70 seconds during the pilot phase. This saves time, “which gives us greater flexibility in the selection of parameters and workpieces to be measured and helps us to optimise our production processes,” emphasises Ziltener. Given the large number of turbine blades to be measured, the benefits for Starrag are significantly increased.

“ Despite the shorter measuring time, the precision is maintained without any compromises.”

Roland Ziltener, Plant Director, Starrag

Widespread use of the solution

Due to the advantages described above, Starrag decided to acquire the measuring machine at the end of the pilot project. The coordinate measuring machine is used to measure turbine blades, which are produced as a proof of concept during the acceptance of the machining centres assembled at the site by the customer.

And the turbine blades, which are milled for a handful of customers at the Aerospace & Turbine Competence Centre, continue to be inspected using the ZEISS PRISMO fortis. And because the machine measures so accurately and quickly at the same time, parts from incoming goods are also inspected.

Simple and understandable

Quality is “produced and not just measured”, Ziltener likes to quote a former colleague. Starrag therefore does not just rely on a simple good/bad evaluation of the workpieces. Instead, it relies on high-quality feedback to determine machine performance.

New standards in quality assurance

For Ziltener, Starrag has set new standards in quality assurance with this pilot project in an industry that requires the highest precision in production and quality control. For him, having been involved in the measurement of turbine blades since 2008, the collaboration with ZEISS was and is “a real success story”. A view that Nytsch also shares. Both are therefore certain that “the next pilot project will come.”

The pilot project showed that productivity in the measurement of turbine blades can be significantly increased with ZEISS PRISMO fortis.