Computer aided manufacturing technologies for centrifugal compressor impellers

The CAD/CAM technologies for manufacturing centrifugal compressor impellers and turbine blades are investigated in this research. The control data poi nts of an impeller or a blade were obtained by using the reverse engineerin g method. The obtained data were used as the input data for UG CAD/CAM soft ware to construct the CAD model. Increasing the machining efficiency during the rough and semi-finish milling process is the main consideration. Incre asing machining accuracy is an important consideration for final finish mil ling. The planning of the tool path and the generation of the NC post-proce ssor for manufacturing an impeller or a blade are also discussed. VERICUT w as adopted to perform the NC simulation before the practical machining proc esses. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.