Coordinated bilateral ultrasonic surface rolling process on aero-engine blades

Security and performance of aircraft engines are extremely affected by the blades’ surface quality. Ultrasonic surface rolling process (USRP) can improve material surface properties effectively and increase the alloys’ service life. However, applying USRP onto blades remains a challenge due to the free-form surface with thin-walled leading/trailing edges and the pre-load pressure on the blade during the USRP process. In this paper, a coordinated bilateral method of USRP on the blade is proposed. A machine tool is first designed and integrated with two USRP devices. A method of coordinated bilateral path generation is then proposed, so that the blade surface can be processed by the two USRP devices simultaneously. Finally, we perform experiments on a real aero-engine blade. The results demonstrate that by using the proposed method, USRP can be applied on the bilateral surfaces of the aero-engine blade coordinately.