Steam Turbine Blading

The steam turbine is one of the principal inventions of history. It is compact, efficient, and reliable, that is, until it needs repair. Then it is cantankerous, complex, and often in need of new blading. The new blades are needed yesterday, and the manufacturer is quoting delivery sometime next year.

Redbird industries was formed to solve this problem. We have been committed from the beginning to manufacture blades in quantities appropriate to the repair business, with delivery times appropriate to the repair business.

Most everyone has seen gee-whiz demonstrations at trade shows, where the Megalithic Gigantic CNC Mill spits out complex parts while the salesman with the shiny shoes is spitting out promises even faster. Some have asked to see a dimension changed by a few thousanths, just to se how it's done. The salesman won't do it, he can't do it. CNC machinery is normally used to make thousands of a single part and this shows in their design. Using this equipment to make turbine blades on short notice would be an exercise in futility.

We don't make promises, we make blades. Our commitment to that goal has required us to design and build our own special stock holding chucks, milling procedures, milling spindls, computer interfaces, and our own computer programs. Even the computer language that the computers "talk" in has been specially designed and coded for our own internal use. This is the Redbird Edge. We went to this length because no other way would give us the capability of making a set of blading in the time frame that the repair business needs.