The United Engine Corporation (part of Rostec) will introduce artificial intelligence to check polished aircraft engine blades for defects. The first such robotic complex will be launched at the Rybinsk enterprise UEC-Saturn - it will be located at the stage of preliminary quality control of parts.
It works like this. The surfaces of the parts are inspected by machine vision cameras. The platform, using machine vision, will receive and process images of small defects in polished blades that are difficult to determine with the human eye. AI will recognize defects based on the analysis of various types of images. After inspecting the surface of the parts, they are marked.
The appearance of AI in high-precision manufacturing is part of the federal project "Artificial Intelligence" of the national program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation".
The introduction of machine vision and artificial intelligence will almost double the speed of detecting defects on the surface of gas turbine engine blades. In addition, the company will be able to analyze and adjust production processes thanks to the data collected. After the platform is launched, the throughput of the control areas will increase significantly, which will have a positive impact on the implementation of the large-scale production program.
UEC-Saturn produces and services industrial and marine gas turbines and units based on them, engines for training aircraft and engines for civil and transport aviation.
One of the main projects of UEC-Saturn in recent times is work on import independence of Superjet 100 aircraft in terms of servicing their Russian-French SaM146 engines.
The company has already produced domestic spark plugs for them and an alternative Russian design of fuel filters. In the process is the technology for flushing import-substituted fuel filters and approval of permission to perform modular repair of the aircraft engine electronic control unit according to federal aviation regulations. The modular repair scheme was developed by UEC-Saturn, UEC-STAR and Aeroflot.