XRA (Rolls Royce J.V. in China) and Nextec Technologies announce a successful installation of In-line Turbine Blade Measurement and Inspection System in China

Tirat Hacarmel, "XRA" - XR Aero Components Co. Ltd., a Rolls Royce PLC. Joint Venture in Xian CHINA and Nextec Technologies 2001 Ltd., are proud to announce the successful installation of Nextec's innovative WIZblade solution on Rolls Royce China production floor. WIZblade is Nextec's new laser scanning solution for turbine blades and NGVs inspection, and it positions Nextec as a leader in this field.

Using the new WIZblade, XRA quality control specialists are now able to
measure and inspect turbine blade in-line in a significantly shorter time of a conventional CMM based system.

"A complete quality control procedure that until today lasted eight hours while using a conventional CMM with a touch probe, now takes just over four hours including the measurement of airfoil sections and edge profiles" says Jacob Waits, XRA General Manager. "We are now able to virtually double our throughput, to overcome bottlenecks at the quality control stage and to ensure a faster delivery to our customers while testing a higher sample rate of the products"

"We are offering the most advanced solution in the market to all compressor and turbine blade manufacturers and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) companies, both for finished (machined) and unfinished (forged or cast) blades", says Danny Shacham, Nextec's President. "Thanks to its technical expertise and infrastructure, Nextec succeeded to develop a breakthrough solution based on our WIZprobe laser probe, Nextec's premium motion controller and user-friendly turn-key WIZblade software"

"This installation in the Rolls Royce J.V. in China is based on a Hexagon
Metrology Global Image platform following the 10 WIZblade systems for
compressor blades measurement on Mitutoyo and Coord3 platforms we already have at Rolls Royce Israel. We already have new installations in the USA on Sheffield platforms, more WIZblade systems in Japan on Mitutoyo platforms and a new installation at IAI - Israeli Aircraft Industries for the MRO market" adds Mr. Shacham.

The entire inspection process for a new turbine blade type includes the
blade CAD model and tolerances input, cross sections selection definitions, Automatic Blade Alignment, transformation of coordinate system into blade orientation, measurement of the relevant cross sections and actual deviations from the CAD model.

A typical Automatic Blade Alignment Time is 90 seconds and each full cross section scanning takes only 30 seconds. During the scanning process, the system records the numerical data in real-time and displays measurement results on the screen. The data is automatically compared to the designed values and to the required tolerances. Thus, the measurement results and quality control reports are generated in a real time and presented both graphically and numerically.

The WIZblade can serve as a turnkey solution with its own platform or can be mounted as a WIZblade Kit on a CMM platform.

ABOUT XRA
XRA (Rolls Royce J.V. in CHINA) is a world-class manufacturer of turbine
blades and NGV`s. XRA is ISO 9001, AS 9100, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and 5 Special Processes NADCAP Accredited. The company was founded in year 1997 with a major goal of becoming a competitive supplier of top quality timely delivered turbine Blades & NGV`s.


ABOUT NEXTEC
Nextec Technologies 2001 Ltd. specializes in 3D, non-contact scanning,
quality control and inspection technologies. Nextec has developed and patented a revolutionary 3D scanning technology that combines laser, innovative optics and image processing with real time adaptive control.
These serve to overcome the fundamental problems of measuring different materials, shiny surfaces, different colors, surface finish and angles, without the need for manual recalibration.


For additional information, please visit our website at: www.nextec-wiz.com
or contact:

Nextec Technologies 2001 Ltd.
Boaz Weiss, VP Marketing & Sales
2 HaEtgar Street, 39120 Tirat Hacarmel, Israel
Tel: +972-4-8571308 Ext.104, Fax: +972-4-8571435 Email: boazw@nextec-wiz.com