Electrical shaft

 Alloy steel

Generators have to convert the rotational energy of turbines into electrical power with the greatest possible efficiency. To do so, the key component of generators, the electrical shaft, must be manufactured with extreme precision.

This is no easy task, as generators are up to 15 m long and weigh more than 200 t – with main winding grooves up to 250 mm deep and up to 9 m long. With Walter's tool and machining concept, winding grooves can be roughed and finished in a single pass. This is accompanied by a comprehensive range of standard and customer-specific solutions for high-precision manufacturing of winding, air, sealing and relief grooves


Milling sealing grooves in the main winding groove

Solution:

Sealing groove milling cutter

  • ► Cost-efficient alternative to HSS or brazed solid carbide tools
  • ► Custom solutions using indexable inserts for most common sealing groove forms
  • ► There are five machining methods to choose from for producing sealing grooves

Milling main winding grooves

Solution:

WF341 routing cutter

  • ► Flexible cartridge system for roughing and finishing
  • ► Can be used for diameters up to 1.3 m and cutting widths of more than 50 mm
  • ► Surface finish qualities to Ra 1.6 thanks to new wiper technology
  • ► Customer-specific solutions for all profile shapes

Milling relief grooves and transverse slots

Solution:

Relief groove milling cutter

  • ► Machining with standard ROHX indexable inserts
  • ► Both plunge milling and copy milling are possible
  • ► Powered by Tiger·tec® Silver

Circular interpolation milling of the coupling holes and discharge groove

Solution:

F2330 high-performance milling cutter

  • ►  Standard tool with Tiger·tec® Silver indexable inserts
  • ►  Lower cutting forces and shorter chips than other solutions
  • ►  Suitable for long projection lengths and diameters of >3 x D–5.5 x D
  • ►  Optimised chip removal thanks to circular interpolation milling with process reliability