Patent ID: 7153103

Claim:
A fan blade and disk assembly having an axis of rotation and comprising a disk and a plurality of fan blades, each fan blade having a root portion, the disk having a rim and a land formed on a face of the disk, the rim having a plurality of grooves to receive the root portions of the fan blades, the grooves comprise walls, bottoms and abutments, and including means with which a force is applied to the inner end of the root portion of each fan blade so as to permanently force each fan blade radially outwardly of the axis of rotation of the assembly so as to engage abutments on the walls of grooves in the rim of said disk in which the root portions of said fan blades reside, wherein said force applying means comprises levers, a first portion of each lever is positioned in a space defined between the radially inner end of the root portion of each respective blade and the bottom of an associated groove, a second portion of each lever is arched, and a third portion of each lever projects outside said space and has a screw passing through said third portion of each lever in screw threaded engagement with said third portion so as to abut the land formed on the face of said disk and, by further rotation, thus cause said lever to pivot about its first portion to bring said arched second portion into contact with the radially inner end of the root portion of its respective fan blade and force said root portion radially outwards into the groove wall abutments of the disk.