BladeRunner is X-Tek’s dedicated Turbine Blade Computed Tomography (CT) and Measurement System designed specifically for the Turbine Blade manufacture and repair industry.

Bladerunner makes precise measurements both outside and inside airfoils that cannot be achieved by any other method. These measurements can be made directly, or the data can be output in several CAD friendly formats.

The BladeRunner CT System eliminates the unwanted effects of X-Ray scatter and diffraction by using a highly collimated fan beam X-ray geometry and a high resolution Line Array Detector (LDA). Bladerunner works in three modes to meet all your inspection requirements, from reverse engineering, through first article inspection and product inspection, to wear analysis.

By moving the Turbine Blade vertically through the fan beam past the line detector the full height of the Turbine Blade can be imaged. Such as scan is called a Paintbrush scan. The vertical movement is carefully controlled by the software to prevent any unwanted image distortion. The resulting image has much less distortion due to parallax, than conventional cone beam radiography. Paintbrush scans typically take 60 to 100 seconds to acquire. If required, longer scans produce higher quality images.

Once the Turbine Blade has been scanned vertically the operator can select a number of specific positions on the blade at which to take a 2D Slice. The software then automatically acquires these 2D slices by rotating the blade in the fan beam. Scan times depend upon the resolution required, and the size of the turbine blade. Low resolution scans can be acquired in 10 to 20 seconds. Typical scans are in the order of 60 to 100 seconds. Very high resolution scans can take 3 to 20 minutes. The longer the acquisition scan the more noise free the CT slice.

If a number of consecutive 2D Slices are taken through the blade, then a 3D CT Volume of the turbine blade can be constructed. Again careful control of the vertical positioning guarantees the absence of any spatial distortion, or slice misalignment.

Direct wall thickness measurements in seconds

Measurements can be taken directly from both the Paintbrush scans and the 2D slices. The 2D slices can be vectorised, and the blade outline can be exported to CAD as a DXF file. 3D volumes can be triangulated and the surfaces can be exported to CAD as an STL file, or point cloud.

The standard 350kV system has a resolution of approximately 75µm, or 3 mils, and edge extraction (once calibrated) can be performed with sub pixel accuracies of better than +/- 25µm (+/-1 mil).

The BladeRunner system is available in several configurations. The standard configuration is based on a 350kV mini-focus X-ray tube, and a high precision line array. 160, 225, and 450kV mini-focus tubes can also be fitted, as well as 160, 225, and 320 micro-focus sources.

Detector options also include a high sensitivity line array. X-Tek also provide a range of standard CT systems for other applications.

In addition to the standard cabinet systems, X-Tek can provide complete custom solutions, or integrate to existing facilities and equipment, were appropriate.

X-Tek’s capabilities extend from X-ray potentials of sub 10keV to over 10MeV, and from sample sizes of microns to meters.