Patents Examined by Michael K. Reitz
  • Patent number: 11643935
    Abstract: A turbine blade includes an airfoil body, and a plurality of cooling passages extending along a blade height direction inside the airfoil body and being in communication with each other to define a serpentine flow passage. The plurality of cooling passages include first turbulators on an inner wall surface of an upstream cooling passage of the plurality of cooling passages, and second turbulators on an inner wall surface of a downstream cooling passage of the plurality of cooling passages. A second angle formed by the second turbulators with respect to a flow direction of a cooling fluid in the downstream cooling passage is smaller than a first angle formed by the first turbulators with respect to the flow direction of the cooling fluid in the upstream cooling passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD.
    Inventors: Yasuo Miyahisa, Susumu Wakazono, Satoshi Hada
  • Patent number: 11629691
    Abstract: A vertical axis turbine includes a rotatable hub assembly that is configured to be connected to an energy sink and rotatable about an axis of rotation. At least two blades are mounted on the hub assembly, each blade including a leading edge and a trailing edge, the blades being oriented so that the respective leading edges face in a common rotational direction. Each blade further includes a straight section that is substantially parallel to the axis of rotation and two helical sections, the straight section being interposed between the helical sections, and the helical sections extending at least partially around the axis of rotation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: AXIS ENERGY GROUP PTY LTD
    Inventor: Peter Kittel
  • Patent number: 11629596
    Abstract: A rotor assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a turbine shaft disposed about a longitudinal axis, a first rotor and a second rotor configured for rotation about the longitudinal axis, and an intermediate shaft positioned radially between the turbine shaft and the second rotor. The second rotor is mounted to and axially adjacent the first rotor. The intermediate shaft is mounted to the turbine shaft on an inner radial side of the intermediate shaft. The intermediate shaft is mounted to the second rotor on an outer radial side of the intermediate shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
    Inventors: Michael Paolucci, Franco Di Paola
  • Patent number: 11629603
    Abstract: An airfoil includes a root and a tip, which define a span of the airfoil therebetween. The airfoil also includes a leading edge and a trailing edge downstream of the leading edge along a flow direction. The leading edge and the trailing edge each extend across the span of the airfoil from the root to the tip. The airfoil further includes a pressure side surface and a suction side surface. The airfoil also includes a thermal barrier coating on the pressure side surface and the suction side surface. The thermal barrier coating includes a base layer and a top coat. A thickness of the base layer varies across each of the pressure side surface and the suction side surface with a maximum thickness of the base layer at the leading edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Martin James Jasper, Jan Agudo, Melbourne James Myers, Richard Ryan Pilson, Christopher W. Kester
  • Patent number: 11629604
    Abstract: A structure for assembling turbine blade seals, a gas turbine including the same, and a method of assembling turbine blade seals are provided. The structure for assembling turbine blade seals includes a turbine blade including an airfoil, a platform, and a root, a turbine rotor disk to which the root of the turbine blade is mounted, a seal plate mounted between the platform and one side of the turbine rotor disk to seal a cooling channel defined within the root and the platform, an insertion pin inserted through the turbine rotor disk and the seal plate to fix the seal plate to the turbine rotor disk, and a retainer configured to fix the insertion pin and to prevent the insertion pin from falling out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: DOOSAN ENERBILITY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Joo Hwan Kwak, Iurii Goroshchak
  • Patent number: 11624286
    Abstract: Impingement insert for an airfoil of a blade/vane of a gas turbine is provided. The impingement insert includes a double-walled section having an outer and an inner walls, that defineā€”an inner channel at an inner surface of the inner wall, an outer channel at an outer surface of the outer wall and a middle channel between the outer and the inner walls. Impingement cooling holes are provided in the outer wall that use the cooling air of the middle channel to eject impingement jets into the outer channel. The impingement insert includes at least one extraction duct that extends between the outer and the inner walls across the middle channel, and has an inlet at the outer channel, and an outlet at the inner channel, for flowing the cooling air, after impingement, from the outer channel into the inner channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: DOOSAN ENERBILITY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Vincent Galoul, Simon Hauswirth, Richard Jones
  • Patent number: 11603762
    Abstract: An exhaust turbocharger turbine wheel can include a hub that includes a nose, a backdisk with a shaft joint portion, and a rotational axis; blades that extend from the hub to define exhaust flow channels where each of the blades includes a leading edge, a trailing edge, a hub profile, a shroud profile, a pressure side, and a suction side; where the backdisk includes an outer perimeter radius measured from the rotational axis of the hub, an intermediate radius at the shaft joint portion measured from the rotational axis of the hub, and an annular recess disposed between the intermediate radius and the outer perimeter radius and defined in part by three-dimensional bolster regions, where each of the three-dimensional bolster regions includes a footprint and a height measured at least in part in a direction of the rotational axis of the hub.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Garrett Transportation I Inc.
    Inventor: Martin Babak
  • Patent number: 11603852
    Abstract: A compressor bleed port apparatus includes: a compressor shroud which defines a boundary between a primary flowpath and a plenum; a bleed port including one or more apertures passing through the compressor shroud, each of the one or more apertures having an inlet communicating with the primary flowpath and an outlet communicating with the plenum, and extending along a respective centerline. Each of the one or more apertures is bounded by sidewalls, and includes a diffuser section in which the sidewalls diverge from each other in a downstream direction; A diffusing angle between the sidewalls varies over the length of the diffuser section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Jonathan Atef Tawfik, Jeffrey Miles McMillen Prescott
  • Patent number: 11603763
    Abstract: A turbine blade for a gas turbine engine has an airfoil including leading and trailing edges joined by spaced-apart pressure and suction sides to provide an external airfoil surface extending from a platform in a spanwise direction to a tip. The external airfoil surface is formed in substantial conformance with multiple cross-sectional profiles of the airfoil defined by a set of Cartesian coordinates set forth in Table 1, the Cartesian coordinates provided by an axial coordinate scaled by a local axial chord, a circumferential coordinate scaled by a local axial chord, and a span location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA CORP.
    Inventors: Abdulhalim Twahir, Panagiota Tsifourdaris, Niloofar Moradi, Daniel Lecuyer, Jocelyn Menard
  • Patent number: 11598213
    Abstract: A rotor assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a turbine shaft disposed about a longitudinal axis, a first rotor and a second rotor configured for rotation about the longitudinal axis, and an intermediate shaft positioned radially between the turbine shaft and the second rotor. The second rotor is mounted to and axially adjacent the first rotor. The intermediate shaft is mounted to the turbine shaft on an inner radial side of the intermediate shaft. The intermediate shaft is mounted to the second rotor on an outer radial side of the intermediate shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
    Inventors: Michael Paolucci, Franco Di Paola
  • Patent number: 11591935
    Abstract: An assembly is provided for an aircraft propulsion system. This assembly includes a first drain tube, a second drain tube, a container and a gas tube. The container fluidly couples the first drain tube to the second drain tube. The container is configured to receive fluid from the first drain tube. The gas tube is fluidly coupled with the container. The gas tube is configured to direct gas into the container for propelling the fluid received within the container into the second drain tube.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Rohr, Inc.
    Inventor: Sean Pretty
  • Patent number: 11578734
    Abstract: A ceiling fan assembly or similar air-moving device can include a motor for rotating one or more blades to drive a volume of air about a space. The ceiling fan assembly can further include a hanger ball with an indexing pin. The ball hanger can be received by a mounting bracket so that, via an alignment guide, the indexing pin of the hanger ball aligns with an indexing groove on the mounting bracket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: Hunter Fan Company
    Inventors: Charles Wiliam Botkin, Bobby Neal Norwood
  • Patent number: 11536295
    Abstract: A centrifugal fan includes a housing and an impeller. The housing includes a sidewall, and the sidewall includes a tongue portion. The impeller includes a fan hub and a plurality of blades. The fan hub is rotatably disposed in the housing, and the tongue portion has an inner contour line on a reference plane. The blades connect to the fan hub. Each one of the blades has an end surface facing the sidewall. The end surface has an outer contour line on the section of the blade. Any two adjacent blades have different outer contour lines. The outer contour line of at least one first blade of the plurality of blades is parallel to the inner contour line. The outer contour line of at least one second blade of the plurality of blades is not parallel to the inner contour line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC.
    Inventors: Hsin-Chen Lin, Ing-Jer Chiou
  • Patent number: 11530678
    Abstract: A wicket gate for a hydraulic turbine or pump contains a blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge, a first trunnion, a second trunnion, an air inlet aperture, an air passage and at least one air outlet aperture. The profile of the suctions side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. Whereas point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an air outlet aperture is located and point P2 is spaced apart from point P1 by less than 10% of the wicket gate length D and point P2 is located upstream of point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at point P1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: Voith Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Stuart Coulson, Jason Foust, Jesse Zoll, Steven McHale, Jianbo Jiang, Brandon Harmer
  • Patent number: 11519424
    Abstract: A return geometry fluidically connects a first and a second compressor stage of the turbocompressor. The return geometry has multiple partial helices that are evenly or unevenly distributed in the circumferential direction. The multiple partial helices extend at least in part in the circumferential direction. They form flow channels that extend at least in some sections, separately from each other, to fluidically connect the first and second compressor stages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: ebm-papst Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Markus Engert, Angelika Klostermann, Daniel Conrad
  • Patent number: 11519291
    Abstract: A gas turbine engine component includes a tubular body section including a plurality of fiber wraps encompassed within a matrix composition and one or more integrally-formed stiffeners extending from an outer surface of the body section and in a component circumferential direction around the body section. The stiffener includes one or more fiber wraps extending radially outwardly from the body section over a form and to the body section from the form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventor: Colin J. Kling
  • Patent number: 11519419
    Abstract: A vacuum pump generally comprises a low pressure portion and a high pressure portion separated by a gas impermeable partition. Gas molecules exit the low pressure portion through an opening in the partition and passively impinge on a featureless rotatable surface in the high pressure portion. A drive rotates the rotatable surface with tangential velocity in the supersonic range at multiple times the most probable velocity of the impinging gas molecules. Impinging gas molecules are ejected outwardly from the periphery of the rotatable surface generating a substantial net outward flow of gas and reducing the pressure in the low pressure portion. The vacuum pump is effective to reduce the pressure in the low pressure portion to a target minimum pressure without using seals to prevent gas molecules from leaking back to the low pressure portion and without using blades or vanes to actively impact the gas molecules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Inventor: Kin-Chung Ray Chiu
  • Patent number: 11499533
    Abstract: Provided is a rotor for a wind turbine, including: a blade, a hub, a pitch bearing being configured to support the blade rotatably about a longitudinal axis of the blade and relative to the hub, and one or more metal arcs for conducting a lightning current from the blade to the hub, the one or more metal arcs including: a first arc portion electrically and mechanically connected to the blade, a second arc portion electrically and mechanically connected to the hub, and a bent portion connecting the first and second arc portions. The metal arcs being configured such that, when the blade rotates relative to the hub, the first arc portion is shifted relative to the second arc portion and a length of the first arc portion is reduced or increased at the expense of an increase or decrease of a length of the second arc portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: SIEMENS GAMESA RENEWABLE ENERGY A/S
    Inventors: Aravind Devaraj, Sajeesh Sulaiman
  • Patent number: 11480061
    Abstract: A method may include: in a used metal turbomachine blade including a root including a shank, a platform coupled to the shank and an airfoil coupled to the platform, removing the airfoil, leaving a remaining base including the platform, the shank and the root. The method may also form a radially extending opening through the platform into the shank, and insert a ceramic shank nub extending from a ceramic airfoil into the radially extending opening of the remaining base. The ceramic airfoil is fixedly attached to the remaining base. The method allows reuse of the metal shank while providing the lower cooling requirements of a ceramic airfoil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Matthew Troy Hafner, John McConnell Delvaux, Thomas Raymond Farrell, Markus Feigl
  • Patent number: 11480159
    Abstract: A mainframe mounts the drivetrain of a wind turbine, and to an arrangement comprising such a mainframe, and to a wind turbine having a corresponding arrangement. For the purpose of mounting the drivetrain of a wind turbine, the mainframe is realized with two bearing points that are spaced apart from each other, a partial flange, having a fastening region shaped as a circular ring segment, being provided at at least one bearing point. The arrangement comprises, besides the mainframe, at least one ring element configured to radially encompass the drivetrain. At least one ring element is fastened to the fastening region, shaped as a circular ring segment, of a bearing point of the mainframe. In the case of the wind turbine, the drivetrain is mounted by means of the described arrangement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Senvion GmbH
    Inventors: Alf Trede, Carsten Eusterbarkey