A zone-layered trimming method for ceramic core of aero-engine blade based on an advanced reconfigurable laser processing system

Abstract

Ceramic structural parts are one of the most widely utilized structural parts in the industry. However, they usually contain defects following the pressing process, such as burrs. Therefore, additional trimming is usually required, despite the deformation challenges and difficulty in positioning. This paper proposes an ultrafast laser processing system for trimming complex ceramic structural parts. Opto-electromechanical cooperative control software is developed to control the laser processing system. The trimming problem of the ceramic cores used in aero engines is studied. The regional registration method is introduced based on the iterative closest point algorithm to register the path extracted from the computer-aided design model with the deformed ceramic core. A zonal and layering processing method for three-dimensional contours on complex surfaces is proposed to generate the working data of high-speed scanning galvanometer and the computer numerical control machine tool, respectively. The results show that the laser system and the method proposed in this paper are suitable for trimming complex non-datum parts such as ceramic cores. Compared with the results of manual trimming, the method proposed in this paper has higher accuracy, efficiency, and yield. The method mentioned above has been used in practical application with satisfactory results.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

ceramic parts trimming / computer-aided laser manufacturing / 3D vision / reconfigurable laser processing system

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Nomenclature

Abbreviations
2D	Two-dimensional
CAD	Computer-aided design
CAM	Computer-aided manufacturing
CNC	Computer numerical control
ICP	Iterative closest point
LCS	Local coordinate system
LPL	Laser focus processing length
OEMCC	Opto-electromechanical cooperative control
WCS	Workpiece coordinate system
Variables
cj	Coordinate of the cluster center
{\mathit{C}}^{(i)}({\mathit{O}}_{\text{WL}}^{(i)},{\mathit{Z}}_{\text{L}}^{(i)})	Center of the ith cluster
D	Diameter of the laser beam
E	Single pulse energy
f	Focal length of the field lens
floor(x)	Downward rounding of the variable x
h	Repetition frequency
H(i)	Transformation matrix from WCS OW to LCS O_{\text{L}}^{(i)}
\mathrm{\Delta }H	Layering distance
I_0	Energy density at the center of the spot
I_{\text{th}}	Ablation threshold of the material
J	Objective function
k	Preset number of categories
M^2	Mode parameter that characterizes the beam quality
n	Number of feature vectors
N_{\text{layer}}	Layer number of the current cluster
O_{\text{L}}^{(i)}	ith LCS
O_{\text{W}}	Workpiece coordinate system
{\mathit{O}}_{\text{WL}}^{(i)}	Coordinate of the coordinate origin O_{\text{L}}^{(i)} of LCS in WCS O_{\text{W}}
P	Laser power
{\mathit{P}}_m^{(i)}	Positioning coordinates of the mth layer of the ith contour cluster
r	Laser spot radius
r_{max}	Radius size along the ellipse’s major axis
r_{min}	Radius size along the ellipse’s minor axis
{\mathit{V}}_{\text{WZ}}	Unit vector along the Z-axis in WCS
w_0	Radius of the laser beam at the waist
w(\mathit{\text{z}})	Radius at various positions along the optical axis
{\hat{x}}_i	Normalization of x_i
{\mathit{x}}_i^{(j)}(x_i,y_i,z_i,u_i,v_i,w_i)	Six-dimensional data representing the feature vector
{\hat{\mathit{x}}}_i({\hat{x}}_i,{\hat{y}}_i,{\hat{z}}_i,u_i,v_i,w_i)	Normalization data
x_{max}	Maximum values of x_i
{\mathit{x}}_{\text{W}}^{(i)}	Data of the ith cluster in WCS
{\mathit{x}}_{\text{L}}^{(i)}	Data in LCS after the coordinate transformation of {\mathit{x}}_{\text{W}}^{(i)}
{\mathit{X}}_{\text{L}}^{(i)}	Unit vector along the X-axis in the ith LCS
{\hat{y}}_i	Normalization of y_i
y_{max}	Maximum values of y_i
{\mathit{Y}}_{\text{L}}^{(i)}	Unit vector along the Y-axis in the ith LCS
z	Distance to the center of the focus along the optical axis
{\widehat{\mathit{\text{z}}}}_i	Normalization of {\mathit{\text{z}}}_i
{\mathit{\text{z}}}_{max}, {\mathit{\text{z}}}_{\text{min}}	Maximum and minimum values of {\mathit{\text{z}}}_i, respectively
{\mathit{\text{z}}}_{\text{R}}	Rayleigh length
{\mathit{Z}}_{\text{L}}^{(i)}	Unit vector along the Z-axis in the ith LCS
\lambda	Laser wavelength
\theta	Incident angle of the laser

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support extended by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFB1102500), the Key R&D Project in Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2019ZDLGY01-07), and the Science and Technology Program of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. SBK2019041271). Xiaodong WANG, Dongxiang HOU, Bin LIU, Xuesong MEI, Xintian WANG, and Renhan LIAN declare that they have no conflict of interest or financial conflicts to disclose.

Electronic Supplementary Materials

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