GB894704A - Improvements in reusable locking means for turbine or compressor rotor assemblies - Google Patents

Abstract

894,704. Turbine and compressor blade mounting. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Feb. 14, 1961 [March 30, 1960], No. 5417/61. Class 110 (3). In a turbine or compressor rotor assembly in which the blade roots are received in slots extending transversely across and through the rotor rim, the blade roots are prevented from sliding in the slots by means of an expansible snap-ring removably seated in a continuous annular groove opening radially inwardly and formed partly in the radially inner surface of the rotor rim and partly in the blade roots. The fir-tree roots 4 of the rotor blades 2 are mounted in correspondingly-shaped slots 13 extending across the rotor rim 10. The blades are restrained from sliding along the slots by means of a snap-ring 18, as of spring steel, which is inserted into a radially inwardly facing annular groove which is formed partly by an interrupted annular groove 15 in the rotor rim and partly by arcuate grooves 7 in the blade roots. The snap-ring 18 is interrupted at a gap 19 and one end is preferably formed with a tab 20 by which it can be grasped during insertion or removal. Tab 20 engages a notch 21 to prevent the gap 19 from rotating into a position within a slot 13. The snap-ring 18 is inserted into the grooves 7, 15 after the blades have been inserted into the slots 13. Alternatively, if the snap-ring 18 is sufficiently flexible, it may be inserted in groove 15 before insertion of the blades, the subsequent insertion of each blade into its slot 13 causing the root 4 to locally press the snapring radially inwards until the snap-ring snaps into the groove 7.