such as 2 0 feet from each side of the grate 24 alternatively the cooling fans 28 and 30 may be angled or tipped in to favor the top area 14 of the blade blank 10 if desired so that cooling air flows over the top area 14 and cool the top area 14 at a first cooling rate different from the cooling rate at which the base 16 cools if desired a first portion of the blade blank 10 may be cooled at a rate of 5 0 to 6 0 deg f sec while a second portion of the blade blank 10 is cooled at a rate of 3 5 to 4 0 deg f sec fig5 and 6 illustrate cooling rate curves for thin and thick sections as determined from thermocouple data tc1 represents a thermocouple inserted in a thin section such as portion 14 of the blade blank 10 and tc2 represents a thermocouple inserted in a thick section such as section 12 of the blade blank 10 fig7 is an sem photomicrograph of a fast cooled section showing a fully lamellar microstructure fig8 is an sem photomicrograph of a slow cooled section showing a duplex microstructure consisting of fine gamma phase in a lamellar matrix after cooling the blade blank 10 can be formed into any suitable article using any suitable technique known in the art for example the blade blank 10 could be machined into a turbine engine component such as a low pressure turbine blade the.