Apparatus for automated peening of tenons connecting turbine buckets and cover plates

Apparatus for securing a cover plate and tips of adjacent buckets of a turbine wheel to one another wherein the cover plate has a tenon projecting from each of the opposite sides thereof and through an opening formed in the respective tips of adjacent first and second buckets, comprising:

• a fixture having a plurality of discrete surfaces for registration with side faces of the bucket tips;
• at least one of the surfaces having a recess for receiving an end portion of a tenon projecting from one side of a cover plate and through an opening in the tip of the first bucket for locating the cover plate and first bucket tip relative to the fixture;
• and
• a peening head having a tool spaced from said one fixture surface for peening an end of a tenon projecting from an opposite side of the cover plate and through an opening in the tip of a second bucket adjacent to and lying on said opposite side of the cover plate from the first bucket tip.