Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Robert B. Reeser, III
-
Patent number: 6788136Abstract: In one aspect, the present invention provides a method for amplifying a signal including generating an input signal and amplifying the input signal utilizing a chopper-stabilized, silicon carbide NMOS depletion mode operational amplifier to produce an amplified output signal.Type: GrantFiled: October 25, 2001Date of Patent: September 7, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Donald Thomas McGrath
-
Patent number: 6786033Abstract: A fuel control system for a gas turbine engine includes logic that is used to facilitate enhanced compressor stall margin when the engine is operating in potential icing conditions is described. The fuel control system is coupled to at least one fuel regulator within the engine, and receives input from a plurality of sensors coupled to the engine. More specifically, the system receives input from environmental sensors, as well as inputs representing compressor inlet temperature, compressor discharge pressure, and corrected core engine speed. Furthermore, the fuel control system also receives input from the other engine fuel regulators.Type: GrantFiled: April 9, 2003Date of Patent: September 7, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: James William Simunek
-
Patent number: 6779268Abstract: A method facilitates replacing a portion of a gas turbine engine combustor. The combustor includes a combustor liner and a wire-wrapped cowl assembly that includes an inner cowl and an outer cowl. The method comprises cutting through the wire-wrapped cowl assembly upstream from fastener openings used to couple the inner and outer cowls to the combustor liner, removing a portion of the cowl assembly from the combustor, and coupling a replacement cowl to the portion of the existing cowl assembly that is downstream from the cut, wherein the replacement cowl includes an inner annular portion, an outer annular portion, and a plurality of circumferentially-spaced radial ligaments extending therebetween.Type: GrantFiled: May 13, 2003Date of Patent: August 24, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Gilbert Farmer
-
Patent number: 6773234Abstract: A method enables a rotor assembly for a gas turbine engine to be fabricated. The method includes forming a blade including an airfoil extending from an integral dovetail used to mount the blade within the rotor assembly, and extending a projection from at least a portion of the blade, such that the stresses induced within at least a portion of the blade are facilitated to be maintained below a predetermined failure threshold for the blade to facilitate preventing failure of the blade.Type: GrantFiled: October 18, 2002Date of Patent: August 10, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Sunil Kumar Sinha, Max Farson, Ming Cheng Li, Paul Izon, Nicholas Joseph Kray
-
Patent number: 6767183Abstract: A method enables a variable vane assembly for a gas turbine engine to be coupled to an engine casing. The variable vane assembly includes a bushing assembly and at least one variable vane that includes a platform and a vane stem. The method comprises coupling a first bushing to the engine casing in a press fit, coupling a second bushing to the variable vane, and coupling the variable vane to the engine casing such that at least a portion of the first bushing is between the engine casing and the second bushing, and such that at least a portion of the second bushing is between the first bushing and the vane stem.Type: GrantFiled: September 18, 2002Date of Patent: July 27, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Jan Christopher Schilling, Thomas George Wakeman, Steward Joseph Cline
-
Patent number: 6761034Abstract: A method enables a structural cover for a gas turbine engine to be manufactured. The method includes forming a torroidial body including an integrally-formed windage cover portion and a seal flange portion, and forming a plurality offastener openings extending from a forward side of the torroidial body to an aft side of the torroidial body, such that when installed in the gas turbine engine, the windage cover portion facilitates shielding the fastener openings from a gas flow path.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2002Date of Patent: July 13, 2004Assignee: General Electroc CompanyInventors: David Andrew Niday, Scott Patrick Ryczek, James Patrick McGovern, Gary Charles Liotta, Gianni Busso
-
Patent number: 6758045Abstract: A method enables a gas turbine engine multi-domed combustor including an outer liner and an inner liner that define a combustion chamber therebetween to be assembled. The method comprises coupling a first dome including a heat shield that includes an annular endbody that extends a first distance axially from the heat shield to the combustor outer liner, and coupling a second dome including a heat shield that includes an annular endbody that extends a second distance axially from the heat shield to the first dome, such that the second dome is radially aligned with respect to the first dome, and wherein the second dome second distance is less than the first dome first distance.Type: GrantFiled: August 30, 2002Date of Patent: July 6, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Mina Dimov, Paul R. Angel, Steven Marakovits, Daniel Dale Brown
-
Patent number: 6755005Abstract: A stiffener system includes a stiffener and a fastener means. The stiffener includes an extruded body that includes a plurality of projections. The stiffener couples to the apparatus to facilitate increasing a structural integrity of the apparatus. The fastener means secures the stiffener to the apparatus.Type: GrantFiled: August 10, 2001Date of Patent: June 29, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Robert Paul Czachor, Michael Leon Barron
-
Patent number: 6751285Abstract: A method for acquiring a plurality of images of an object of interest using a tomosynthesis imaging system. The method includes determining a thickness of an object of interest, and adjusting at least one parameter of an image acquisition process based on the determined thickness.Type: GrantFiled: November 21, 2001Date of Patent: June 15, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Jeffrey Wayne Eberhard, Bernhard Erich Hermann Claus, Beale Opsahl-Ong, Ralph Allen Hewes
-
Patent number: 6745570Abstract: A method for assembling a flap system for a gas turbine engine exhaust nozzle including a plurality of backbone assemblies facilitates extending a useful life of the exhaust nozzle. The method includes providing a flap basesheet having a width defined between a pair of side edges that are coupled together by a leading edge and a trailing edge, and including at least one stiffener that extends between the basesheet side edges and includes an intermediate portion that has a width that is smaller than that of the basesheet and is at least one of bonded to and formed integrally with the basesheet, and coupling the basesheet to the gas turbine engine with a backbone assembly.Type: GrantFiled: February 1, 2002Date of Patent: June 8, 2004Assignee: General Electric Co.Inventors: Bernard J. Renggli, Darrell Senile
-
Patent number: 6746209Abstract: A method for fabricating a nozzle for a gas turbine engine facilitates extending a useful life of the nozzles. The nozzle includes an airfoil. The method includes forming the airfoil to include a suction side and a pressure side connected at a leading edge and a trailing edge such that a cooling cavity and a cooling circuit are defined within the airfoil, wherein the suction side and the pressure side extend radially between a tip and a root. The method also includes forming a plurality of cooling slots within the airfoil that extend from the cooling circuit towards the airfoil trailing edge, and forming a control vane within the cooling circuit to facilitate maintaining a substantially constant cooling effectiveness within the cooling circuit.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 2002Date of Patent: June 8, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Thomas Edward DeMarche, Robert Francis Manning
-
Patent number: 6742339Abstract: A method enables a gas turbine engine positioned within a module to be operated. The engine includes an inlet and an exhaust, and the module includes an inlet area, an exhaust area, and an engine area extending therebetween and housing the engine. The exhaust area includes an exhaust duct and an outlet. The engine is operated such that inlet air is routed through the module inlet and into the engine inlet, wherein exhaust gases are discharged through the module exhaust duct and substantially perpendicularly from the gas turbine engine. The exhaust gases are discharged from the module outlet in a direction that is at least ninety degrees offset from exhaust gases flowing within the exhaust duct. Cooling fluid is discharged from the module engine area through a cooling system exhaust, such that the discharged fluid flows through the cooling system exhaust and around the module exhaust area.Type: GrantFiled: September 6, 2002Date of Patent: June 1, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventor: Michael W. Horner
-
Patent number: 6742324Abstract: A method enables a gas turbine engine variable bypass valve system to be assembled. The method comprises positioning a unison ring circumferentially within the gas turbine engine such that the unison ring is radially outward from a structural frame, coupling at least one bellcrank to the unison ring, such that the unison ring is radially supported only by said at least one bellcrank, and coupling the at least one bellcrank to a bellcrank support that is coupled to the structural frame.Type: GrantFiled: September 13, 2002Date of Patent: June 1, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Kenneth Alan Bachelder, Donald James Welty
-
Patent number: 6741919Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting an impending failure of a process sensor is provided. The method includes determining a sensor output noise component, and comparing the output noise component to a historical sensor output noise signature based on at least one of the range of span of the sensor and the process operating conditions. The apparatus includes a computing device including a processor and a memory communicatively coupled to the processor wherein the processor is programmed to execute a software product code segment that includes a comparator, a data historian, an isolator module, and a limit module. The computing device is configured to detect impending failure of a sensor using an output signal noise component of the sensor and wherein the sensor senses a parameter of a process associated with the computing device.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2003Date of Patent: May 25, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Richard Francis Schuster, Malcolm John Ashby, Matthew William Wiseman
-
Patent number: 6739839Abstract: The first-stage buckets have airfoil profiles substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth in Table I wherein Z is a perpendicular distance from a plane normal to a radius of the turbine centerline and containing the X and Y values with the Z value commencing at zero in the X, Y plane at the radially innermost aerodynamic section of the airfoil and X and Y are coordinates defining the airfoil profile at each distance Z. The X, Y and Z values may be scaled as a function of the same constant or number to provide a scaled-up or scaled-down airfoil section for the bucket.Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2003Date of Patent: May 25, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Theresa A. Brown, Majid Ahmadi, Eugene Clemens, Jacob C. Perry, II, Allyn K. Holiday, Richard A. Delehanty, Ariel Caesar Prepena Jacala
-
Patent number: 6739050Abstract: A method for assembling a flap and seal system for a gas turbine engine exhaust nozzle including a plurality of backbone assemblies facilitates attaching a basesheet to a backbone. The method includes attaching an attachment system including at least one strap to a basesheet, and coupling the basesheet to a backbone using the attachment system strap.Type: GrantFiled: October 13, 2003Date of Patent: May 25, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Darrell Senile, Bernard J. Renggli
-
Patent number: 6736338Abstract: A combustor for a gas turbine engine operates with high combustion efficiency, and low nitrous oxide emissions during engine operations. The combustor includes at least one trapped vortex cavity, a fuel delivery system including two fuel circuits, and a fuel spray bar assembly. A pilot fuel circuit supplies fuel to the trapped vortex cavity and a main fuel circuit supplies fuel to the combustor. The fuel spray bar assembly includes a spray bar and a heat shield. The spray bar is sized to fit within the heat shield. The heat shield includes aerodynamically-shaped upstream and downstream sides.Type: GrantFiled: February 7, 2003Date of Patent: May 18, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Arthur Wesley Johnson, Robert Andrew Wade, David Louis Burrus
-
Patent number: D495212Type: GrantFiled: April 24, 2003Date of Patent: August 31, 2004Inventor: Laura Ann Martin
-
Patent number: D609972Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2008Date of Patent: February 16, 2010Inventors: Virginia Lynn Reeser, Robert Bruce Reeser, III
-
Patent number: D611766Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2008Date of Patent: March 16, 2010Inventor: Virginia Lynn Reeser