Patents Represented by Attorney Cermak Nakajima LLP
  • Patent number: 8257047
    Abstract: A rotor blade for fastening on the rotor of a turbomachine, especially of a compressor of a gas turbine, has a blade airfoil and a blade root (15) which adjoins the lower end of the blade airfoil and extends along a blade axis and by which the rotor blade, in an encompassing slot which is arranged on the outer periphery of the rotor, is retained between two spacers (12, 18) which follow each other in the circumferential direction and which in their turn are retained in the slot. The blade root (15) is formed with a T-shape in cross section and includes circumferential shoulders (16, 16?) which fit under the adjacent spacers (12, 18), and the spacers (12, 18), in the direction of the blade axis, engage by retaining surfaces (20) in undercuts (24) in the slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 4, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Thomas Mueller
  • Patent number: 8255447
    Abstract: The present invention provides an eigenvalue decomposition apparatus that can perform processing in parallel at high speed and high accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Kyoto University
    Inventors: Yoshimasa Nakamura, Hiroaki Tsuboi, Taro Konda, Masashi Iwasaki, Masami Takata
  • Patent number: 8247919
    Abstract: A combined-cycle power plant (10) has at least one power train (60) including a steam turbine (24) and a second generator (8) directly driven by the steam turbine (24) and generating alternating current, the output of which generator is connected to a power grid (21) having a given grid frequency (F), and at least one power train (11) of a gas turbine (12) and a first generator (18) driven directly by the gas turbine (12) and generating alternating current with an operating frequency, the output of which generator is connected to a power grid (21) having a predetermined grid frequency. An electronic decoupling device or a variable electronic gear unit (27) decouples the operating frequency from the grid frequency and is arranged between the first generator (18) and the power grid (21). Such a plant allows both flexible steady-state operation with high overall efficiency as well as flexible transient operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Jürgen Hoffmann, Thomas Meindl
  • Patent number: 8247201
    Abstract: An organic acid is produced by allowing a bacterium belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae, which has an ability to produce an organic acid and has been modified so that the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity is enhanced, which is selected from Enterobacter, Pantoea, Erwinia, Klebsiella and Raoultella bacteria, or a product obtained by processing the bacterium, to act on an organic raw material in a reaction mixture containing carbonate ions, bicarbonate ions, or carbon dioxide gas to produce the organic acid, and collecting the organic acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshinori Tajima, Keita Fukui, Kenichi Hashiguchi
  • Patent number: 8242657
    Abstract: The main problem to be solved by the invention is to provide a superconductive rotor, a superconductive rotating machine and a superconductive rotating-machine system which are capable of inductive and synchronous rotation while employing the induction machine configuration and also offer satisfactory heat dissipation performance, stability under an excessive load, and easy magnetic flux trap for synchronous rotation. To solve the problem, the invention provides a superconductive rotor, as shown in FIG.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Kyoto University
    Inventor: Taketsune Nakamura
  • Patent number: 8235275
    Abstract: An amorphous braze foil (1) produced by a melt-spin process has an upper side and a lower side. The upper side and the lower side are thinly coated with a film of metallic Ni-based, Co-based, or Ni—Co-based braze powder (2) with a particle size in the nanometer range, wherein both the braze foil (1) and also the braze powder (2) additionally include grain boundary stabilizing elements as alloying elements. In addition, melting point depressants can be present in the braze foil or in the nano braze powder (2) in a commercially common quantity or with a considerably increased proportion. With the braze foil (1) coated in this manner, both the melting temperature of the braze material and also the probability of recrystallization are advantageously reduced when brazing in the adjacent base material (10).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Alexander Stankowski, Daniel Beckel
  • Patent number: 8236531
    Abstract: A purine-derived substance is produced by culturing a bacterium belonging to the genus Bacillus which has an ability to produce a purine-derived substance and has been modified so that enzymatic activity of transaldolase is decreased in a medium to cause accumulation of a purine-derived substance in the medium or cells, and collecting the purine-derived substance from the medium or cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Takayuki Asahara, Kiyoshi Matsuno, Yukiko Mori
  • Patent number: 8231349
    Abstract: A turbine component (25) includes a root (21), a tip (22), and an airfoil portion (7) having a leading and a trailing edge (8,9), an external suction side and pressure side wall (13, 14) between the leading and trailing edge. The walls enclose a central cavity (1-6) for the passage of cooling air, the cavity being partitioned into a leading edge- and a trailing edge region (7a, 7b) by at least one longitudinally extending first web (15) connecting the suction side wall with the pressure side wall and a second longitudinally extending web (16), connecting the first web with the suction side wall, thereby defining a first and second entry chamber (2, 3). The first web (15) is provided with at least one cross-over hole (H1) between the first entry chamber and the leading edge chamber (1), whereas the second web has no openings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Shailendra Naik, Brian Kenneth Wardle
  • Patent number: 8232665
    Abstract: The wind power generator includes: a wind tunnel formed by a columnar member erected on a foundation in a vertical direction; a plurality of wind-collecting plates that extends from a circumferential wall of the columnar member in directions normal to the circumferential wall; a plurality of upper and lower guide plates provided between the wind-collecting plates; a plurality of wind inlets that introduces wind collected by the wind-collecting plates into the wind tunnel; back-flow preventing means that allow only the flow of wind blowing from the outside of the columnar member into the inside of the columnar member; a turbine that is driven by wind blowing out from one end of the wind tunnel, and power generator that is driven by the turbine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Inventor: Shigeru Sato
  • Patent number: 8231340
    Abstract: A leaf seal 10 in a rotary machine is located between a higher pressure region 14 and a lower pressure region 16 of the machine. Blow-down forces are greater on the lower pressure side 16 of the leaf seal 10 than on its higher pressure side 14, resulting in greater inward deflection of the leaves 20 on the lower pressure side of the seal than on its higher pressure side, leading in turn to greater wear of the leaves and the contacting rotor surface 44 on the lower pressure side 16 of the seal. To counteract this, the free ends 36 of the leaves 20 can be given a tapered profile 42 to gradually reduce the length of each leaf 20 over its width ‘w’ from its higher pressure side 14 to its lower pressure side 16, so that the leaves 20 are free to deflect under the blow-down forces by the amount of their reduction in length (a maximum of ‘x’), before they contact the rotor surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Neil Howes
  • Patent number: 8225684
    Abstract: A ceramic honeycomb filter including trapping holes forming lattices is used to detect particulates trapped in the filter. An electromagnetic wave is transmitted to the filter in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the trapping hole. The electromagnetic wave after the electromagnetic wave passes through the filter is received and the particulates trapped in the filter are detected on the base of a received intensity of the electromagnetic wave. The electromagnetic wave has a frequency of 0.294 c/a or more and c/a or less (a represents a lattice spacing of said trapping holes and c represents the speed of light). The electromagnetic wave is irradiated to the filter wherein the particulates are not trapped and an inclined angle ? of the electromagnetic wave with respect to the lattices is changed so as to increase a received intensity of the electromagnetic wave.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Jungo Kondo, Yuichi Iwata, Tetsuya Ejiri
  • Patent number: 8227214
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing an L-amino acid using a bacterium of the Enterobacteriaceae family, particularly a bacterium belonging to genus Escherichia or Pantoea, which has been modified to attenuate expression of a gene coding for sRNA.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Konstantin Vyacheslavovich Rybak, Aleksandra Yurievna Skorokhodova, Elvira Borisovna Voroshilova, Mikhail Markovich Gusyatiner, Tatyana Viktorovna Leonova, Yury Ivanovich Kozlov, Vitaly Grigorievich Paraskevov, legal representative, Takuji Ueda
  • Patent number: 8220269
    Abstract: A combustor (1) for a gas turbine engine, particularly for a gas turbine having sequential combustion, includes a combustor wall (4) defining a mixing region (5) and a combustion region (6). The mixing region (5) has at least one first inlet (2) for introducing combustion air into the mixing region (5) and at least one second inlet for introducing fuel into the mixing region (5), the combustion region (6) extending downstream of the mixing region. The mixing region (5) crosses over to the combustion region (6) in a transition region (14). A baffle (9) extends from the transition region (14) generally in the downstream direction (15), forming at least one space (10) between the combustor wall (4) and the baffle (9).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventor: Madhavan Narasimhan Poyyapakkam
  • Patent number: 8222007
    Abstract: The present invention describes an L-glutamic acid-producing bacterium which belongs to the genus Pantoea, Enterobacter, Klebsiella or Erwinia, wherein the bacterium has been modified by gene recombination to inactivate the rpoS gene. A method is also described for culturing the bacterium in a medium to cause accumulation of L-glutamic acid in the medium, and collecting L-glutamic acid from the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
    Inventors: Yoshihiko Hara, Hiroshi Izui
  • Patent number: 8220345
    Abstract: An apparatus for inspection of a gap between two surfaces, at least one of which is ferromagnetic, for example in a generator, includes a sensor platform (26) for one or more sensors (26a) and an elongated mount (23), which can be moved out, for the sensor platform (26). The mount (23) can be moved in and out of the gap through an access opening, can be moved out over the length of the gap and can be rolled up outside the gap by a drive (24). In its moved-out state, the mount (23) has a curvature in a lateral cross section. In addition, the mount (23) has a plurality of magnets (27) by which the mount (23) is brought into contact with a ferromagnetic surface. The magnets (27) are attached to the side of the mount (23) facing away from the ferromagnetic surface, ensuring that the mount (23) slides along a ferromagnetic surface. The apparatus allows inspection of gaps from a height of 4 mm and is distinguished by a simple and physically small design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Roland Moser, Niklaus Hugi, Bernhard Mark, Philipp Isler, Simon Honold, Josef Erni
  • Patent number: 8220271
    Abstract: A fuel lance (7) for introducing fuel into a gas flow in a combustor (1) of a gas turbine engine includes a region of the lance (7) through which the fuel is introduced into the gas flow having a generally helical formation (12).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Madhavan Narasimhan Poyyapakkam, Adnan Eroglu, Gregory John Kelsall
  • Patent number: 8221825
    Abstract: A method for the local initial application of a thermal barrier coating layer (3), or for the local repair of coating defects and/or deteriorations of components (1) in the hot gas path of a gas turbine engine, which components are coated with a thermal barrier coating layer, includes at least the following steps: (I) in the case of repair, normally overall inspection of the whole component (1) for the determination of the location of defect/deterioration, as well as of corresponding type of defect/deterioration of each place for a multitude of locations of the component (1); (II) if needed, preparation of the surface in at least one location; (III) local application of a ceramic tissue together with a wet chemical thermal barrier coating layer deposition material for the formation of a patch (5) of ceramic matrix composite; (IV)a intermediate inspection of the patch and/or the surface; (IV)b in the case of a repetitive and/or multi-step repair method, subsequent layer application of a ceramic tissue togethe
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: ALSTOM Technology Ltd.
    Inventors: Daniel Reitz, Sophie Duval, Piero-Daniele Grasso, Alexander Stankowski, Fernando Manuel Santos Silverio
  • Patent number: 8216689
    Abstract: Components (1) have a thermal barrier coating (2-6) on the surface thereof, wherein the thermal barrier coating includes at least one layer (3) having chemically stabilized zirconia, and wherein at least indirectly adjacent to the layer (3) with chemically stabilized zirconia and on its surface facing side, there is provided a protective layer (4) and/or a infiltration zone (5) which does not react with environmental contaminant compositions that contain oxides of calcium and which does not react with the material of the layer (3) having chemically stabilized zirconia. Methods for making such components as well as to uses of specific systems for coating thermal barrier coatings, can prevent CMAS.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignees: ALSTOM Technology Ltd., ETH Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Zuerich
    Inventors: Gregoire Etienne Witz, Hans-Peter Bossmann, Valery Shklover, Sharath Bachegowda
  • Patent number: D665171
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Fukunaga Sikoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Koichi Suzuno
  • Patent number: D665908
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Zimmer Surgical SA
    Inventor: Marc Detry