Method of manufacture of an article having internal passages
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorJohn Goddard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacture of hollow turbine blades for gas turbine engines comprises forming them in two parts and brazing the parts together. This requires very accurate machining of the two faces of the parts which are to be joined prior to the brazing process. The invention provides a method of machining two confronting faces of parts of an article which are to be joined together. The method includes the step of passing an electrolyte linishing belt (2) FIG. 4 between the confronting surfaces of the two parts (10,11) and in contact with both faces simultaneously while passing an electric current between the parts. Thus one or both faces of the parts are machined using one as the former for the other.
Claims6
A method of manufacture for a turbine blade having one or more internal passages therein comprising the steps of:
- (a) making parts of the blade which when joined together complete the article, at least one of the parts having one or more of the passages at least partially defined in a surface thereof which is adapted to confront a matching surface of another of the parts,
- (b) electro-lytically machining at least one of the two surfaces which are required to match by passing a linishing belt containing electrolyte between the two surfaces and in contact with both surfaces simultaneously, whereby one acts as a former for machining the other, and passing an electric current from one part to the other and through the electrolyte, and
- (c) assembling the parts with the matching surfaces in confrontation and with the partially formed passages aligned and joining the surfaces together, thereby creating a hollow turbine blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.