HOLLOW FAN BLADE PREPARATION METHOD

The invention is related to the field of metal pressure processing, in particular, to methods of manufacturing hollow fan blades for a fan of gas-turbine engine (GTE), the blade consisting of skins made of titanium alloy and a core in the form of stiffening ribs produced using diffusion welding and superplastic forming. The claimed method may find application in aircraft engine building for manufacture of a wide-chord fan blade that must be lightweight, so that it is reasonable to make the blade hollow. The objective of the invention is elimination of possibility of defects occurring in manufactured blades without worsening the blade performance and without any increase in labour intensity in blade manufacture. In accordance with the method for manufacturing a hollow blade for a gas-turbine engine fan consisting of skins made of titanium alloy and a core in the form of stiffening ribs produced using diffusion welding and superplastic forming, skin preforms and core preforms are assembled to form a packet; preliminarily, a protective coating is applied, in accordance with the given stencil pattern, to areas of contacting surfaces of skin and core preforms that are not joined by diffusion welding, including the collector zone; in addition, the skin preforms are provided with a groove and the core preform is provided with a slot for installation of at least one tube; the packet is sealed tightly over its edges, with the exception of the place for installation of the at least one tube, the tube is installed and connected to the collector zone, and oxygen and the binding agent of the protective coating are removed from the cavities in the packet assembly; the packet is sealed completely and heated, and diffusion welding is carried out on the preforms in specified areas, including along an inlet edge, an outlet edge and a peripheral edge to produce a whole structural preform; the whole structural preform is given an aerodynamic profile, and superplastic forming is carried out by means of feeding a working medium into the cavities between the skin and core preforms using also the at least one tube. The method differs from the prior art in that the collector zone is positioned on the side of the packet assembly which corresponds to the peripheral edge of a blade; for installation of one or a plurality of tubes intended for feeding working medium during superplastic forming, the groove in the skin preforms and the slot in the core preform are provided at a distance