The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 1993
Filed:
Jul. 31, 1991
Alexander Velicki, Garden Grove, CA (US);
McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Long Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
A hollow core fan blade for a gas turbine engine, having a continuous leading edge, is fabricated using a four-sheet superplastic forming/diffusion bonding process which results in a cost-efficient and lightweight, yet strong, structure. The rotor blade is comprised of a face sheet which has a 180 degree bend therein so that the two face sheet ends are aligned. Bonded to opposing sides of the face sheet are first and second core sheets, between which is the hollow core. To fabricate the blade, a core sheet assembly is inserted inside the prepared face sheet, thereby forming a Ti-Pack (titanium pack) assembly having a plurality of pressure-tight cells. The Ti-Pack is inserted into a cavity within a die, after which the rotor blade, having predetermined design characteristics, is superplastically formed by heating the die and selectively pressurizing the plurality of cells.