Date of Award

Summer 2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Rice, James

Second Advisor

Bowman, Tony

Third Advisor

Danyluk, Mike

Abstract

A manufacturing facility is introducing the company's first straddle mount liquid metal spiral groove bearing (SGB) on a rotating anode x-ray tube. In a manufacturing environment, it is critical that processes are robust and timely to drive down costs while also responding to market demand for improvement. There is currently a lot of variation in the anode balance process. Furthermore, there are repeatability questions surrounding the new balancing system that is used in this anode balance process. To better understand the characteristics of the new liquid metal SGB anode and the effects of measurement system variation, the measurement system will be isolated to determine the critical variables. It is hypothesized that the characteristics of the spiral groove liquid metal bearing are the cause of measurement system uncertainty below 1.0 g*cm. Data has been collected using two rotating anode platforms: i) liquid metal SGB; and ii) a ball bearing rotating anode system. The data will be used to compare measurement system repeatability of the SGB anode against the ball bearing anode for the same balance and correction process. After each unbalance measurement, a correction process is initiated where by material is removed from the correction planes as determined by the balance machine. Cutter depth, operator interaction, and machine repeatability play a vital role in the balance quality of the rotating anode system. The success of this thesis is to determine the critical variables and factors driving the measurement uncertainty in order to reduce cycle time.

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