Blades are one of the vital components and most difficulty in manufacturing of large hydro turbines.In order to cost-effectively and productively manufacture these kinds of blades,a series of digital techniques in manufacturing have been devel- oped,which includes digital design of hydro turbine blades based on manufacture’ requirements,Computer-aided location and the machined error evaluation by using 3-dimensional digitized measuring,tool path generation strategy to meet requirements of en- hancing machining efficiency and controlling deviation in NC machining,tool path generation and NC machining simulation by es- tablishing a virtual NC machining environment for blades,and reasonable and feasible strategy and the systematic scheme for man- ufacturing of large blades by using 5-axis simultaneous CNC machining.The developed digital manufacture techniques have been successfully applied in manufacturing of both the large Kaplan and Francis hydraulic turbine blades;it shows that higher efficiency and the better surfaces finish accuracy can be achieved.
