The development of the Rolls-Royce wide chord fan blade - a personal perspective

[2016-11-02 Wed 19:08:04] speaker: Gerry Fitzpatrick event: Science in the Cafe

Generates 75% of engine thrust at take-off.

Need to absorb stress from impact with birds.

Used to be solid blade forge from titanium. Wanted to decrease weight and increase width.

Replace part of the internal core with honeycomb in first gen. Second gen uses line-core construction. Third gen is the swept fan design.

Diffusion bonding of three sheets of titanium and specific points.

Superplastic forming: argon gas is pumped into the structure and it forms into the desired shape and internal structure.

Seletar is the first place outside the UK to manufacture and test wide chord fan blades (WCFB).

Component testing