Patent ID: 6837686

Claim:
A blade retention system, for use in a rotor assembly including a rotor hub disk having a thickness, a forward face and a rearward face with a peripheral circumferential array of spaced apart blade retention slots extending between the forward and rearward hub faces at a selected broach angle thereto, each slot having a radially inward floor and side walls adapted for sliding engagement with a blade root of a rotor blade, the root having lateral sides disposed at said broach angle to forward and rearward root surfaces, wherein the blade root has a bottom surface which when engaged in said slot, is radially spaced from and adjacent the slot floor thus defining a gap extending between the forward and rearward hub faces at said selected broach angle, the improvement characterised in that the blade retention system includes: a blade root retention tab having an elongated web having a thickness less than said gap and including: a preformed transverse flange extending from a first end of the web, the web adapted to be disposed in the gap when the web rests on the slot floor to permit sliding engagement of the blade root in the slot, the preformed flange adapted to engage one of the forward and rearward faces of the rotor hub disk; wherein the web of the tab includes at least two deformable protrusions extending radially to a height exceeding said gap, the protrusions adapted to deform on sliding engagement with the blade root in the slot; and wherein the blade root includes a chamfered leading edge.