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I used to work at a plant like this, we were acquired by Siemens. The machining process itself is less critical than the balancing and even the welding of these components, which is highly engineered and controlled.

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I can imagine. Manufacturing tolerances will have some minor effect on balance and efficiency, failure of a weld or large imbalance or resonance would be fatal. Even so, the machining process itself was quite impressive to someone who is used to 'regular' CNC machining without working to such close tolerances. The movement of the cutter was very interesting too, hypnotizing if you will :) I forgot what the material was, these blades were for aircraft turbines.

What kind of turbine blades did you work on? Gas turbines for stationary applications or for aircraft or something else? Do you remember what material they were made out of?

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