Citation
(2004), "Rolls Royce wins key national measurement award", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 51 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2004.12851cab.016
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Rolls Royce wins key national measurement award
Rolls Royce wins key national measurement award
Technology leader, Rolls Royce plc., has won The Frontier Science and Measurement Award at the prestigious National Measurement Awards 2003.
The award, sponsored by ASAP Calibration Services, was presented to Jeff Willis, Specialist Engineer at Rolls Royce, for his idea of using computer-aided design (CAD) and dynamic X-ray for non-invasive tip clearance measurement.
He said: “Rolls Royce has always used capacitance probes for tip clearance measurement. Turbine tip clearance needs to be at a minimum without rubbing and as all the components expand at different rates it creates a major design problem.
“The probes have to be mounted in a component that is fixed in order to provide a datum. They are built into the liner above the turbine blade tip and detect the gap between the blade and the liner. However, the liner moves and compounds errors in measurement, which in turn are passed on to design and build.”
Jeff Willis came up with the idea of using a dynamic X-ray and CAD image interface to build the blade profile on an image using known reference points from within that image.
The Frontier Science and Measurement Award (category one of the National Measurement Awards) acknowledges the generation of new and innovative ideas that will form the platform for future measurement technologies.