Method of fabricating a hollow article
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJames E. Eiswerth, Louis Lievestro, Richard C. Haubert, Harvey M. Maclin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of fabricating a hollow article, such as a rotor blade, comprising the steps of forming a solid piece of material and establishing a reference datum thereon, cutting the piece into two parts and establishing aligning means for adjacent surfaces of the two parts, separating the two parts and forming at least one cavity in one of the adjacent surfaces, aligning the adjacent surfaces using the aligning means, fastening the two parts together, and forming the external surfaces of the article using the reference datum as a positional reference.
Claims16
A method of fabricating a hollow article having an airfoil portion and a base portion, said airfoil portion including a convex side, a concave side, a leading edge and a trailing edge, comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a solid piece of material having dimensions greater than or equal to the dimensions of said article and including upper and lower portions corresponding to said airfoil and base portions respectively of said article;
- (b) establishing at least one reference datum on said piece of material;
- (c) cutting said piece of material into two parts, the path of the cut extending through said piece of material from said upper portion to said lower portion and defining complementary adjacent surfaces of the two parts, each of said adjacent surfaces comprising only two planar surfaces which intersect along a generally longitudinally extending axis at an angle to each other for facilitating alignment in step (f);
- (d) establishing aligning means for said adjacent surfaces of said two parts;
- (e) separating said two parts and forming at least one cavity in at least one of said adjacent surfaces for defining a hollow interior of said article;
- (f) aligning said adjacent surfaces of said two parts by means of said aligning means and by abutting said complimentary adjacent surfaces of said two parts;
- (g) fastening said two parts together;
- and
- (h) forming external surfaces of said upper portion of said article utilizing said reference datum as a positional reference to form said airfoil portion having said convex side, said concave side, said leading edge and said trailing edge so that said path of said cut intersects only said convex side at points spaced from said leading edge and said trailing edge.
A method of fabricating a hollow article having an airfoil portion and a base portion, said airfoil portion including a convex side, a concave side, a leading edge and a trailing edge, comprising the steps of:
- (a) casting a substantially rectangular block of material having dimensions greater than or equal to the dimensions of said article and including upper and lower portions corresponding to said airfoil and base portions respectively of said article;
- (b) establishing reference datums on said lower portion of said block;
- (c) cutting said block into two parts, the path of the cut extending through said block from said upper portion to said lower portion and defining complementary adjacent surfaces of said two parts, each of said adjacent surfaces comprising only two planar surfaces which intersect along a generally longitudinally extending axis at an angle to each other for facilitating alignment in step (f);
- (d) forming a hole in said lower portion of said block to receive a dowel for aligning said two parts;
- (e) separating said two parts and machining at least one cavity in at least one of said adjacent surfaces for defining a hollow interior of said article;
- (f) aligning said adjacent surfaces of said two parts by means of said dowel and by abutting said complimentary adjacent surfaces of said two parts;
- (g) bonding said two parts together;
- (h) machining external surfaces of said upper portion utilizing said reference datums as positional references to form said airfoil portion having said convex side, said concave side, said leading edge and said trailing edge so that said path of said cut intersects only said convex side at points spaced from said leading edge and said trailing edge;
- (i) establishing at least one secondary reference datum on said airfoil portion;
- and
- (j) machining external surfaces of said lower portion utilizing said secondary reference datum as a positional reference to form said base portion.
The method of claim 16 comprising an additional step (1) of bonding a tip cap to an end of said airfoil portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.