COPPELL, TX-Metrology provider NVision Inc. has announced the purchase of a second Maxos noncontact measurement system by Toshiba GE Turbine Components (TGTC) in Yokohama, Japan. In 2008, TGTC purchased its first Maxos, which helped the company reduce the time needed to inspect and measure turbine blades by 83%, from 280 minutes to 45 minutes.

“The Maxos provides the best possible accuracy, eliminates the need for matt coating and easily integrates with our engineering and production processes,” says Tomio Kubota, president of TGTC. “It is also significantly faster than any of the other systems we had originally considered.”

TGTC is a joint venture that combines the production expertise of Toshiba and General Electric to produce large blades ranging from 26 to 52 inches for steam turbines.

TGTC previously used a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to inspect the blades but found that it was too slow and often unable to access hard-to-reach areas such as dovetail hooks and fillets. As a result, it typically took longer to inspect the blades than to make them.

The Maxos uses a noncontact probe consisting of a concentrated light that collects individual points at a rate of 100 per second, many times faster than a CMM. Unlike laser or white-light fringe scanners, the Maxos can inspect turbine blades without having to apply a matt coating that introduces dimensional inaccuracy. It uses five axes to reach every point on the blades and also generates specific and accurate measurements of critical areas. Resulting measurements are reported instantly and the need for additional manual inspection is eliminated.

For more information, contact NVision Inc. at (972) 393-8000 or visit www.nvision3d.com.