Author(s)

D.F. Toller

Abstract

Inspection technology in the aero engine industry D.F. Toller Head of Manufacturing Technology, Rolls-Royce pic, Derby, UK Abstract Today's advanced gas turbines such as the Rolls-Royce Trent operate in harsh conditions to levels of reliability that are unprecedented for most other complex manufactured products. Indeed Rolls-Royce holds the record for the world's most reliable turbofan - an RB211-535 which ran for 40,500 hours and covered over 18 million miles on an Iceland Air Boeing 757 before its scheduled overhaul in March 2000. Compare that with a car engine doing 150,000 miles or ~ 5,000 hours before overhaul. Or machine tools, which if heavily used need an overhaul after, say 7 years or 10 000 hours of use. In order to achieve such high levels of reliability it is clearly necessary to ensure that components are designed and manufactured to world beating levels of quality. Since a typical engine contains over 30,000 components sourced from up to 600 suppliers world-w

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