Abstract: A vibration damper for rotor blades of a gas turbine engine has a shaft and a contact head connected thereto. The shaft is slidably inserted in a cylindrical recess incorporated in the rotor blade platform. During rotation of the rotor disk, the shaft of the damping member slides along the shaft axis, whereby the damping member is moved at least in the radial and circumferential directions by centrifugal forces. The contact head of the damping member of one rotor blade finally bears against the platform portion of an adjacent rotor blade, serving to damp vibratory motion of both blades.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a turbomachinery blading configuration. The configuration includes a circumferential recess in a blade support structure and a plurality of blades. Each blade has a platform for mounting the blade within the recess. Each platform includes oppositely directed, generally circumferentially facing edges, each edge having a first and second axial surfaces separated by a recess. The surfaces contact matching surfaces on adjacent blades thereby determining predictable load paths for tangential and twisting moment reaction forces acting on the blades.

Abstract: A method of making at least the aerofoil of a blade for a gas turbine engine in which the cooling air exit passages, whether at the trailing edge or in other parts of the aerofoil, are cast rather than machined subsequently. In the method a disposable piece is formed with holes of the shape of the holes eventually required in the blade aerofoil. The piece is placed in a die and used to define part of the ceramic core required in the casting process, the die being arranged to produce a channel portion interconnecting the otherwise free ends of the parts of the core which will form the passages. The ceramic core thus formed in a lost-wax casting process to form the blade aerofoil, the channel portion being embedded in the shell mould to support the parts which define the passages.

Abstract: A core or core part for use in the lost wax casting process is strengthened by admixture to its material of a proportion of short reinforcing fibres.