Patents Examined by Ninh Nguyen
  • Patent number: 6471483
    Abstract: A turbine disc for carrying turbine blades is rotatable about a central axis and has a circumferentially extending peripheral face divided into two side face strips by a circumferentially extending root slot. For the greater part of its circumferential length opposite sides of the root slot are parallel. But at at least one location arcuate bights of opposite curvature are formed opposite to one another to form a load slot through which a root of a turbine blade can be introduced into the radially innermost part of the root slot. The arcuate bights have the same radius of curvature and may be arcs of the same circle. On each of two opposite sides of the load slot is a respective shadow slot. One shadow slot is formed by oppositely disposed arcuate bights, and the other shadow slot is formed by oppositely disposed arcuate bights. The radius of curvature of each bight of the shadow slot is greater than that of the bights of the load slot and can be at least twice that of the bights of the load slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Alstom Power N.V.
    Inventor: Richard Allan London
  • Patent number: 6471480
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a lightweight shrouded turbine blade. The turbine blade comprises an airfoil section and a hollow blade tip shroud joined to the airfoil section. The hollow tip shroud is preferably a cast, compartmentalized structure and has a plurality of ribs acting as load bearing structures and defining a plurality of shroud core sections. Each of the shroud core sections communicates with a supply of cooling fluid and has a plurality of apertures for supplying cooling fluid to exterior portions of the shroud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: J. Tyson Balkcum, III, George Liang, Timothy J. Remley, Christopher Charles Williams, Hans R. Przirembel
  • Patent number: 6471479
    Abstract: A gas turbine engine hollow airfoil includes an airfoil outer wall having width wise spaced apart pressure and suction side walls joined together at chordally spaced apart leading and trailing edges of the airfoil and extending radially outward from a base to a tip. The airfoil includes a single three pass aft flowing serpentine cooling circuit and a straight through leading edge cooling channel extending radially through the airfoil and bounded in part by the leading edge. The exemplary embodiment includes a trailing edge cooling plenum and a straight through single pass trailing edge feed channel for providing cooling air to the trailing edge cooling plenum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: John Howard Starkweather
  • Patent number: 6471484
    Abstract: A multi-stage rotor assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a damper system that facilitates damping vibrations induced to the rotor assembly. The rotor assembly includes a blisk rotor including a plurality of rotor blades and a radially outer rim. The rotor blades are integrally formed with the rim and extend radially outward from the rim. The damper system is attached to rotor blades within at least one stage of the rotor assembly, and includes at least one layer of damping material and a cover sheet. The cover sheet is attached to the rotor blade with adhesive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: David William Crall
  • Patent number: 6468030
    Abstract: A turbo-molecular pump evacuates gas with a rotor that rotates at a high speed. The turbo-molecular pump comprises a casing, a stator fixedly mounted in the casing and having stator blades, a rotor rotatably provided in the casing and having rotor blades alternating with the stator blades, and a radial turbine blade pumping section having a spiral ridge-groove section provided on at least one of surfaces, facing each other, of the stator blade and the rotor blade. At least one of the stator blade and the rotor blade which are located at a first stage of the radial turbine blade pumping section has such a shape that at least one of the stator blade and the rotor blade is smaller in thickness in a direction of gas flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2002
    Assignee: Ebara Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 6468028
    Abstract: A centrifugal pump includes a C-shaped sealing assembly including an annular spring disposed between opposing legs of a base member. The spring biases the legs away from one another into sealing positions. In other embodiments, a vertical pump may be provided so as to include an oil recirculation system which enables an oil-based lubricant to be utilized instead of grease. In still other embodiments, the axial location of a pump shaft may be adjusted by rotating a bearing housing relative to the bearing frame where the two are threadedly connected to one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2002
    Assignee: Environamics Corporation
    Inventor: Robert E. Rockwood
  • Patent number: 6468040
    Abstract: A cast turbine airfoil to which a squealer tip is added. The turbine airfoil is cast slightly undersize. The squealer tip is comprised of an alloy that is different from the cast alloy of the airfoil, the oxidation resistance and strength of the squealer tip alloy being greater than the strength of the turbine airfoil alloy. The cast turbine alloy having the added squealer tip can utilize a material in the squealer tip that is more difficult to cast than the cast alloy material, yet is more suited for severe environmental conditions and temperature extremes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2002
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Richard J. Grylls, Joseph D. Rigney, Warren D. Grossklaus, Jr., Melvin R. Jackson
  • Patent number: 6461104
    Abstract: A flow regulator for a water pump, comprising a control valve. The control valve is mounted on an inlet pipe of a water pump and has a chamber, housing a flat-shaped control plate, the upper part of which forms a piston plate, vertically gliding in an upper chamber. The upper chamber is connected with an outlet pipe. The control valve is exposed to water pressure in the outlet pipe, with the control plate driven downward by the water pressure, countered by two springs at two lateral sides of the control plate. The control plate thus has a varying vertical position according to the water pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2002
    Inventor: Der-Fan Shen
  • Patent number: 6454529
    Abstract: A gas turbine engine including an active clearance control system that facilitates extending a useful life of a rotor assembly in a cost effective and reliable manner is described. The engine includes at least one rotor assembly and an engine casing that extends circumferentially around the rotor assembly, such that a tip clearance is defined between the rotor assembly and the engine casing. The clearance control system includes a plurality of panels that couple to extend circumferentially around the engine. Each clearance control system panel includes a circumferential feed duct that is formed integrally with the panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Scott Richard Zearbaugh, Steven Louis Brickner, James Warren Hackler, Lonnie Ray Chadwell
  • Patent number: 6450769
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a blade assembly with damping elements, which comprises a rotor (5) and blades (6) which are installed on the circumference of the rotor and have a blade platform (7), shank (14) and root (8). A damping element (9) is arranged between respectively adjacent blades (6), said damping element (9) being frictionally connected on rotation of the rotor (5), to at least a first region (1, 2) of a first of the respectively adjacent blades (6), and to a second region (3) of a second of the respectively adjacent blades (6). The blade assembly is characterized by the fact that the damping element (9) is configured and arranged between the first and second blades in such a way that the first region (1, 2) and the second region (3) are located at positions which are significantly spaced apart from one another in the radial direction. This blade assembly provides efficient oscillation damping even in the case of small relative movements between adjacent blades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2002
    Assignee: Alstom (Switzerland) Ltd
    Inventor: Jaroslaw Szwedowicz
  • Patent number: 6447241
    Abstract: In a centrifugal compressor, a housing is provided which has an annular treatment cavity in a shroud wall. The shroud wall has a first opening providing communication between an installed zone of an impeller and the treatment cavity, and a second opening providing communication between the treatment cavity and a zone upstream of the first opening so as to circulate air a during a low-flow-rate operation. Louvers are arranged in the second opening in circumferentially equidistantly spaced apart relationship with each other and inclined reversely to a rotative direction of the impeller so that the air a sucked to the treatment cavity is, when discharged through the second opening, subjected to directional flow guide action with a whirling direction reverse to the rotative direction of the impeller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: Ishikawajima-Harima Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hidefumi Nakao
  • Patent number: 6447249
    Abstract: On the folding-blade rotor, an outer radial length of an electric cable for connection between the hub and a blade has a part forming spare length and wound into an S-shape around two reels each mounted at the end of one of the two blade pins that connect the blade root to the cuff connecting the blade to the hub. The withdrawal of at least one pin with its reel releases a portion of the part forming spare length and allows the blade to be folded without disconnection at the ends of said electrical connecting cable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: Eurocopter
    Inventor: François Potdevin
  • Patent number: 6447245
    Abstract: A rotodynamic pump comprising a centrifugal impeller (11) provided within a volute body (7) and an emulsifier (17) provided in the region of an inlet of the volute body and rotatable with the centrifugal impeller for emulsifying material to be pumped.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: Sweepax International Limited
    Inventors: Timothy Oakley, Geoffrey Howard Clements
  • Patent number: 6447242
    Abstract: In a feed pump designed as a side-passage pump and having a driven impeller rotating in a housing a liquid to be fed is supplied radially from the inside to guide blades arranged in the impeller. For this purpose, the impeller has a groove adjoining the guide blades. As a result, Feed pump has an especially high efficiency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: Mannesmann VDO AG
    Inventor: Hans-Dieter Wilhelm
  • Patent number: 6447250
    Abstract: A gas turbine engine rotor disk has a number of annular hubs circumscribed about a centerline and each of the hubs is connected to a disk rim by a web. A plurality of circumferentially spaced apart circular arc dovetail slots are disposed through the rim. Circumferentially extending annular burst slots extend radially through the rim into the dovetail slots between each adjacent pair of the webs. The fan blades have circular arc dovetail roots disposed within the circumferentially spaced apart circular arc dovetail slots. A one piece spinner attached to a forward extension of the disk at a location between a tip and an axially aft spinner end of the spinner. Non-integral platforms circumferentially disposed between the fan blades. A booster spool is connected to the rotor disk by a mounting plate therebetween and the platforms are radially retained to the disk and mounting plates by pins through holes in mounting lugs depending radially inwardly from the platforms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: Sean Joel Corrigan, Jeffrey Clayton Potter, Joseph Timothy Stevenson, Jay L. Cornell, James Michael Forrester, Rolf Robert Hetico
  • Patent number: 6443693
    Abstract: A fuel pump for a motor vehicle has an outlet duct leading to an internal combustion engine and a connection leading to an ejector, and two delivery chambers which are separate from one another. The delivery chambers are concentric so that one surrounds the other. The fuel pump is simple to construct and can be manufactured at favorable cost.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2002
    Assignee: Mannesman VDO AG
    Inventor: Karl Eck
  • Patent number: 6443695
    Abstract: A steam turbine includes a turbine casing, in which a turbine rotor is accommodated so as to extend along a direction of flow of steam, and a plurality of turbine pressure sections are mounted to the turbine rotor, which includes, in combination, at least two or more of a turbine high pressure portion, a turbine intermediate pressure portion and a turbine low pressure portion. The turbine casing is divided into two casing sections, each of the divided turbine casing sections being further divided into a turbine casing upper half and a turbine casing lower half, and the turbine casing lower halves of the divided turbine casing sections being connected to each other by a fastening member such as stud bolt inserted from a side of the turbine low pressure portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2002
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Masataka Kikuchi, Toru Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6439831
    Abstract: A power control system for driving a vessel (which may be manned or unmanned) is used to provide a series of pulse trains to the system wherein at least one pulse within each series of pulse trains provides a differing amount of power. Preferably, a portion of the series of pulse trains which has a duration of 10% of the duration of the pulse train delivers more than 20% of the total power to the drive member for the vessel which the drive member receives each cycle. In this way, the noise signature of a vessel is reduced or is varied to match the noise signature of another vessel or wildlife of a natural phenomenon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2002
    Inventor: Wayne Ernest Conrad
  • Patent number: 6435830
    Abstract: According to the invention, an article that is exposed to high temperatures, e.g., over 1000° C. during operation is disclosed. In one embodiment, a turbine blade for a gas turbine engine includes a directionally solidified metallic substrate, e.g., a superalloy, which defines an airfoil, a root and a platform located between the blade and root. The platform has an underside adjacent the root, and a corrosion resistant overlay coating such as an MCrAlY is located on the underside of the platform and the neck. The applied coating prevents corrosion and stress corrosion cracking of blade in these regions. Where the airfoil is also coated, the airfoil coating may have a composition different from that of the coating on the underplatform surfaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2002
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: William Patrick Allen, Walter E. Olson, Dilip M. Shah, Alan David Cetel
  • Patent number: 6435828
    Abstract: A fan has a plurality of blades that are each configured to induce radial-flow adjacent the trailing edge of the blade while also being configured to induce both radial-flow and axial-flow near the base end of the blade. This is achieved by splitting each of the blades into two sections and orienting the chord-line of the blades near the hub of the fan at angle relative to the axis of the hub while maintaining the chord-line of the blades parallel to the axis near the trailing edges of the blades. This results in an increased ability of the fan to draw air in axially as compared to conventional radial-flow fans. The fan of the preferred embodiment also makes use of an annular ring joining the trailing edges of the blades.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2002
    Assignee: Emerson Electric Co.
    Inventor: Peter K. Bostwick