Patents by Inventor Michael Dwayne Rutter

Michael Dwayne Rutter has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Sprayed-in thickness patterns
    Patent number: 6663918
    Abstract: A differential thickness pattern can be induced in a coating that is sprayed on an aircraft engine part using a robotic system. The robotic system includes a spray mechanism with a triggering device to spray the coating on the aircraft engine part and a controller. The controller is used to move the spray mechanism along a predetermined path and to activate and deactivate the triggering device. To obtain the differential thickness pattern, a predetermined profile of the aircraft engine part corresponding to areas of the aircraft engine part requiring a thicker coating is integrated into a control program used by the controller. The controller uses the control program to activate and deactivate the triggering mechanism to limit the spraying of the coating to only those areas of the part in the predetermined profile to obtain a different coating thickness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2003
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Timothy Lance Manning, Timothy Ray Lattire, Michael Dwayne Rutter, Andrew Jay Skoog, Jane Ann Murphy
  • Sprayed-in thickness patterns
    Publication number: 20020168479
    Abstract: A differential thickness pattern can be induced in a coating that is sprayed on an aircraft engine part using a robotic system. The robotic system includes a spray mechanism with a triggering device to spray the coating on the aircraft engine part and a controller. The controller is used to move the spray mechanism along a predetermined path and to activate and deactivate the triggering device. To obtain the differential thickness pattern, a predetermined profile of the aircraft engine part corresponding to areas of the aircraft engine part requiring a thicker coating is integrated into a control program used by the controller. The controller uses the control program to activate and deactivate the triggering mechanism to limit the spraying of the coating to only those areas of the part in the predetermined profile to obtain a different coating thickness.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2001
    Publication date: November 14, 2002
    Inventors: Timothy Lance Manning, Timothy Ray Lattire, Michael Dwayne Rutter, Andrew Jay Skoog, Jane Ann Murphy