Method of forming a turbine rotor

Abstract

A rotor for a gas turbine engine has a wrought superalloy disk with ceramic blades. The rotor is formed by placing ceramic blades in a fixture with their ceramic blade roots extending inwardly and between the upper and lower rims of a disk or disk halves. The facing upper and lower circumferential rims are cut away to provide for the ceramic blade roots. Said disk or disk halves being of a wrought superalloy having a fine grain size microstructure which can be placed in a superplastic condition. A compliant layer material is placed between the ceramic blade roots and the rims of the disk, and the disk and compliant layer are then heated so as to place the disk in a superplastic condition and pressed into intimate contact with the ceramic blade root, and if disk halves are being used, they are bonded together at inner mating surfaces. The rotor is then heat treated to return the disk to its normal condition of high strength and hardness. The compliant layer can be a thin layer of material inserted between the blade root and disk, or it can be a material applied directly to the blade root or disk slot such as by plating, sputtering, or flame spraying.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.