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Starrag USA has installed its new LX021 turbine blade machine into its Hebron, Kentucky, development center to support aerospace and energy customers. The application-based design of the LX021 supports part rigidity with its spindle and subspindle part clamping, and the subspindle turret enables multiple workholding strategies to fully machine blades in one setup.

According to Starrag, the turbine blade machine boasts features such as a self-centering vice meant to minimize part distortion while maintaining accuracy and repeatability; kinematic correction cycles to calibrate the machine and verify its health; RCS CAM software designed to generate optimized CNC tool paths; RCS blade inspection that precisely measures blades and compensates for forging variations; and a 10-pallet storage system with a spindle loaded part gripper to automate part set-up for continuous operation

Starrag’s full solution strategy includes incorporating Blum-Novotest Inc. probing technology for precise in-process part measuring, tool setting and surface roughness verification.

Starrag is also partnering with precision toolholding manufacturer Haimer to include heat shrink holders and a Power Clamp Special Addition heat shrink unit in the lab. “Our long-term customer partnerships are very important to us,” explains Udo Herbes, managing director of Starrag. “Even after we deliver a solution, we continue to work with our customers so we can continue to engineer precisely what they value.”