Patents Examined by Su Htay
  • Patent number: 8790075
    Abstract: A support assembly for a geared architecture includes an engine static structure. A flex support is secured to the engine static structure and includes a bellow. A support structure is operatively secured to the flex support. A geared architecture is mounted to the support structure. First members are removably secured to one of the engine static structure and the flex support and second members are removably secured to the support structure. The first and second members are circumferentially aligned with one another and spaced apart from one another during a normal operating condition. The first and second members are configured to be engageable with one another during an extreme event to limit axial movement of the geared architecture relative to the engine static structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: James B. Coffin, Alessio Pescosolido
  • Patent number: 8777554
    Abstract: A fan system is disclosed having a forward fan stage configured to pressurize an airflow and an aft fan stage having a tip-fan configured to pressurize a first portion of a pressurized air flow from the forward fan stage wherein the aft fan stage is driven by a second portion of the pressurized airflow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2014
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: John Lewis Baughman
  • Patent number: 8770934
    Abstract: A teeter mechanism for a multiple-bladed wind turbine includes a rotor shaft operable to rotate about a first axis. A spherical member is rotatable about the first axis along with the rotor shaft. A plurality of turbine blades is mounted to a rotor hub. The rotor hub rotationally drives the rotor shaft, and is operable to teeter about the spherical member such that the rotor hub rotates about the first axis in a first position and rotates about a second axis offset from the first axis in a second, teeter position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation
    Inventor: Robert H. Perkinson
  • Patent number: 8764398
    Abstract: A concentrated-mass device including a main oscillating mass held radially in a horizontal plane by main resilient means inside a casing suitable for being secured to the hub is provided. The device includes a secondary main oscillating mass suspended by secondary resilient means inside a recess in said main oscillating mass to oscillate along a vertical axis perpendicular to the horizontal plane, the secondary oscillating mass being constrained to move in translation together with the main oscillating mass in the horizontal plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Airbus Helicopters
    Inventors: Vincent Girard, Stéphane Mazet
  • Patent number: 8757963
    Abstract: A thermal module includes a fan device having a fan and a fan housing for covering the fan. A vent is disposed on the fan housing. The thermal module further includes an airflow guiding device installed on the fan housing in a protrudable manner and disposed on a side of the vent for guiding airflow into the vent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Wistron Corporation
    Inventor: Wei-Cheng Chou
  • Patent number: 8753079
    Abstract: A mechanical seal is disclosed having a rotatable sealing face and a stationary sealing face that are in opposed relation and arranged to be urged, into contact to form a seal. One of the sealing faces is mounted on a support assembly that includes a biasing device operative to move that sealing face into contact with the other sealing face. In one form of the invention, the biasing device includes one or more resilient members that in use are deformed to provide the biasing force. In a second form of the invention, the support assembly forms part of a fluid barrier of the seal and the biasing device is fluid impervious and forms part of the barrier. In a third form of the invention, the biasing device is exposed to fluid pressure in the chamber and the biasing force increases on increasing the fluid pressure in the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Vulco S.A.
    Inventors: Ricardo Abarca Melo, Rodrigo Guzman Castro, Osvaldo Quiroz Venegas
  • Patent number: 8753088
    Abstract: A propeller blade retention system and method of manufacture are disclosed. Because of the design, a truly integral hub is able to house a set of variable pitch blades. Each hub socket establishes a substantially cylindrical interface with its respective blade, making the blade slidably receivable for installation. Each blade is allowed axial rotation, and held inside the socket by a set of angular contact bearings. A snap ring locks the blade against coming back out of the socket. An O-ring is provided in the interface to create a fluid seal. The hub alone accomplishes all of the required load-bearing and weather-seal functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Textron Innovations Inc.
    Inventors: Kevin Pfeiffer, Danny Ball
  • Patent number: 8708642
    Abstract: A new improved compact wind power turbine with multiple turbine blades and an isolated arrow point stationary nose is presented. Turbine blades (rotors) are connected to a circular cage, and at the center of the turbine, the isolated arrow point stationary nose points forward. Each turbine blade has a 90 degree right angle fin connected to its tip for capturing the force of the wind that applies to the blade tip, which otherwise spills over, reducing wind force and creating turbulence at the tip. The captured wind at the blade tip increases the rotational force on the turbine blades creating a greater rotational force than on other market-available wind turbines. Preferentially, the turbine is directed into the wind either manually, or by using a tail vane or other means for orientating turbine into a wind. A generator or alternator converts the mechanical power into electricity for use at industrial, commercial or home sites.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Inventor: Romeo Prasad
  • Patent number: 8690534
    Abstract: Arrangements for promoting the restriction of fluid flow along a shaft via providing a deformable ring member in an annulus between the shaft and housing. In an initial general condition, the deformable ring member permits free fluid flow in a general direction along the shaft while in a second, constricted condition, the deformable ring closes or blocks a gap or clearance normally conducive to free fluid flow to thereby restrict fluid flow. An actuation medium, which can take any of a very wide variety of forms, preferably promotes constriction of the deformable ring member directly or indirectly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Curtiss-Wright Electro-Mechanical Corporation
    Inventors: David Jeffrey Janocko, Charles David Bice
  • Patent number: 8678756
    Abstract: In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method may include installing a first seal around a motor shaft. The method may also include installing a second seal around the motor shaft, wherein the second seal and the first seal may form a hydrodynamic seal when the motor shaft rotates. The method may further include installing a spacer in-between the second seal and the first seal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2014
    Assignee: Raytheon Company
    Inventor: Jaime Robledo
  • Patent number: 8662830
    Abstract: An adjustable support apparatus for a steam turbine nozzle assembly is disclosed. In one embodiment, a steam turbine apparatus includes: a diaphragm segment having a horizontal joint surface and an angled ledge below the horizontal joint surface, the angled ledge configured to receive a complementary angled portion of a wedge member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2014
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Prashant Prabhakar Sankolli, James Peter Anderson, Jason Paul Mortzheim
  • Patent number: 8651801
    Abstract: A seal monitoring and control system for a gas lubricated non-contacting seal includes various sensors providing signals to a programmable logic control system. The control system is disposed to determine a presence of an anomalous operating condition of the seal, for example, based on phase, relative position of rotor to stator or other signals in combination provided by the various sensors to provide an output signal, which in one embodiment performs at least one mitigating process to correct the anomalous operating condition by adjusting at least one operating parameter of the seal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: John Crane Inc.
    Inventors: Elhanafi A. Shamseldin, Joe Delrahim, Paul A. Hosking, Joseph L. Savio, Vladimir Bakalchuk
  • Patent number: 8641377
    Abstract: A turbine rotor blade for an industrial gas turbine engine with a platform cooling circuit that flows from the suction side of the platform and around both the leading edge and trailing edge of the platform, and then along the pressure side platform to cover the entire platform surface. The cooling air flows along smaller diameter cooling holes that cover substantially the entire pressure side platform surface and is then discharged out through openings onto the pressure side mate-face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: George Liang
  • Patent number: 8641376
    Abstract: A wind turbine is provided with a rotor including a plurality of blades and a deicing unit. The deicing unit performs a deicing operation only on one(s) of the plurality of blades, which has an azimuth angle within a predetermined range. The predetermined range is within a range from 90 to 270 degrees, and includes 180 degrees. Therefore, ice scattering is suppressed in deicing the wind turbine blades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Mitsuya Baba
  • Patent number: 8622703
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a rotorcraft blade (1) provided with at least one spar (3) and an outer covering (4), said blade (1) including a hollow sleeve (10) with a wall (11) that is provided at least with said outer covering (4) secured to said spar (3). The blade includes a rotary damper (20) provided with an inner tubular strength member (21) and an outer tubular strength member (22) that are coaxial and connected together by a ring (23) of viscoelastic material, said inner tubular strength member (21) being secured to said covering (4), and said outer tubular strength member (22) being provided with a fork (25) possessing first and second tines (26, 27) facing each other so as to be suitable for receiving a first ball joint (41) close to the pitch-variation axis (AX1) of said blade (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Eurocopter
    Inventors: Vincent Girard, Stéphane Mazet, Rémi Metivier, Alain Eberhard
  • Patent number: 8596986
    Abstract: A compressor component having an airfoil with a profile in accordance with Table 1 is disclosed. The compressor component, such as a compressor blade, has an increased thickness over a portion of the airfoil span in order to increase stiffness. Furthermore, the airfoil has been restacked so as to induce a compressive stress in the blade root/attachment area. The increased stiffness and restacked airfoil combine to improve high-cycle fatigue capability of the compressor component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Edward Len Miller, William David Day, Hitesh Narendra Patel, Jeffrey S. Taylor
  • Patent number: 8523519
    Abstract: An alloy suitable for use in a rotor, such as one or more regions of a steam turbine rotor, as well as a forged rotor formed with the alloy. The alloy consists of, by weight, 0.20 to 0.30% carbon, 0.80 to 1.5% chromium, 0.80 to 1.5% molybdenum, 0.50 to 0.90% vanadium, 0.30 to 0.80% nickel, 0.05 to 0.15% titanium, 0.20 to 1.0% manganese, and 0.005 to 0.012% boron, the balance iron, optionally low levels of other alloying constituents, and incidental impurities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2013
    Assignee: General Energy Company
    Inventors: Steven Louis Breitenbach, Deepak Saha
  • Patent number: 8517670
    Abstract: A support assembly for a geared architecture includes an engine static structure. A flex support is secured to the engine static structure and includes a bellow. A support structure is operatively secured to the flex support. A geared architecture is mounted to the support structure. First members are removably secured to one of the engine static structure and the flex support and second members are removably secured to the support structure. The first and second members are circumferentially aligned with one another and spaced apart from one another during a normal operating condition. The first and second members are configured to be engageable with one another during an extreme event to limit axial movement of the geared architecture relative to the engine static structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: James B. Coffin, Alessio Pescosolido
  • Patent number: 8517669
    Abstract: A mechanical wind mill is provided for producing electricity through the power of wind energy. The wind turbine may include a plurality of gears which may be interchanged to control the rotational velocity of the wind turbine to most efficiently produce electricity. Including in the plurality of gears are the set of gears which may be slid along a shaft to best control the rotational velocity, but which may be changed as wind speed changes. The gears are mounted on a shaft, which is connected to a generator that is capable of producing electricity by rotation of said shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Inventor: William Dotts, III
  • Patent number: 8517684
    Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a serpentine flow cooling circuit having three legs in which the first leg and the second leg are upward flowing channels each having a series of slanted ribs that define impingement chambers with impingement cooling holes to provide impingement cooling to the airfoil walls. The second leg is a downward flowing leg that contains no metering holes and is substantially unobstructed to the cooling air flow. The rotation of the blade produces a centrifugal force on the airflow passing through the channels with the metering and impingement holes to aid in the flow towards the blade tip. The return channels are unobstructed in order to minimize the pressure loss on the return channel of the serpentine circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2013
    Assignee: Florida Turbine Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: John E Ryznic