Patents by Inventor Curtiss Mitchell Austin
Curtiss Mitchell Austin 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).
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Patent number: 7047683Abstract: An album manufactured solely of folded photographic prints bonded together plus a treatment applied to the spine. Two-page spreads are imprinted on each print except the first and last pages, which are placed on the right and left halves of the first and last prints, respectively. When made from standard photographic print sizes, the album achieves the valuable objectives of low cost, low weight and low bulk, and are especially suited for secondary copies of full-size composite image flush mount albums.Type: GrantFiled: December 4, 2003Date of Patent: May 23, 2006Inventor: Curtiss Mitchell Austin
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Patent number: 6755619Abstract: A turbine blade has an airfoil section with a root end and a tip end, and an attachment at the root end of the airfoil section. A blade tip seal is joined to the tip end of the airfoil section. The blade tip seal is formed as an open-cell solid aluminum oxide foam made of aluminum oxide cell walls having intracellular volume therebetween. The blade tip seal has a blade interface region adjacent to the tip end of the airfoil section. The blade interface region is formed of the aluminum oxide foam and a nickel-base alloy within the intracellular volume. The blade tip seal also has a contact region remote from the blade interface region and comprising the aluminum foam wherein the intracellular volume is porosity.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: June 29, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Jerry Donald Schell
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Patent number: 6709700Abstract: A sacrificial ceramic fixture precursor is furnished with a shaped portion thereof shaped to receive a supported article. The sacrificial ceramic fixture precursor is immersed into a molten reactive metal for a period of time sufficient to permit the sacrificial ceramic fixture precursor and the reactive metal to react together. The result is a reacted ceramic fixture comprising an open-cell solid foam of ceramic cell walls having an interconnected intracellular volume therebetween. The reacted ceramic fixture is contacted to a supported article to produce a process assembly. The process assembly is processed as required for the supported article, which typically includes heating to an elevated temperature.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: March 23, 2004Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Richard John Grylls
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Patent number: 6648596Abstract: A turbine blade or turbine vane includes a metallic nonfoam region, and a ceramic foam region joined to the metallic region. The ceramic foam region is an open-cell solid ceramic foam made of ceramic cell walls having an intracellular volume therebetween. The ceramic is preferably alumina. The intracellular volume may be empty porosity, or an intracellular metal such as an intracellular nickel-base superalloy.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: November 18, 2003Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Peter John Linko, III
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Patent number: 6630199Abstract: A structure protected by a ceramic coating is prepared by providing a substrate having a surface, and depositing a layer of a sacrificial ceramic precursor material, preferably silica, onto the surface of the substrate. The method further includes furnishing a reactive gas, preferably an aluminum-containing gas, that is reactive with the sacrificial ceramic to produce a protective ceramic different from the sacrificial ceramic, and contacting the reactive gas to the layer of the precursor material to produce a protective ceramic layer.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: October 7, 2003Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Richard John Grylls
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Patent number: 6582812Abstract: An article of manufacture includes a metallic nonfoam region, and a ceramic foam region joined to the metallic region. The ceramic foam region is an open-cell solid ceramic foam made of ceramic cell walls having an intracellular volume therebetween. The ceramic is preferably alumina. The intracellular volume may be empty porosity, or an intracellular metal such as an intracellular nickel-base superalloy.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: June 24, 2003Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin
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Patent number: 6544003Abstract: A blisk combining gas turbine blades and disk in a single structure comprises a disk and a number of blades integrally affixed to the disk. Each blade includes an airfoil made at least in part of an open-cell solid ceramic foam formed of ceramic cell walls, and an intracellular volume therebetween. The ceramic cell walls are preferably alumina, and the intracellular volume is preferably filled at least in part with a nickel-base superalloy. Another portion of the intracellular volume may be empty porosity.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: April 8, 2003Assignee: General Electric Co.Inventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin, James Jay Kightlinger
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Patent number: 6521053Abstract: A substrate is protected by first providing the substrate, and applying a ceramic coating overlying and bonded to the substrate. The ceramic coating is formed of an open-cell solid foam of ceramic cell walls having an interconnected intracellular volume therebetween which is filled at least in part with a metallic alloy. The ceramic coating has an exposed surface remote from the substrate. The exposed surface of the ceramic coating is heated to an exposure temperature such that at least some of the metallic alloy is lost from the intracellular volume.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: February 18, 2003Assignee: General Electric Co.Inventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin
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Patent number: 6443700Abstract: A structure includes a cooled article having an open-cell solid foam of ceramic or metal cell walls with a porous interconnected intracellular volume therebetween. A source of a pressurized gas is in communication with a source region of the cooled article. The source of the pressurized gas includes a gas plenum in gaseous communication with the source region, and a compressor having a compressed gas output in gaseous communication with the gas plenum. Gas flows from the source of the pressurized gas through the porous intracellular volume, to cool the cooled article.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: September 3, 2002Assignee: General Electric Co.Inventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Kevin Swayne O'Hara
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Patent number: 6435824Abstract: A gas turbine stationary shroud is a curved stationary shroud body having a concave inner gas-path surface and a generally convex back. The curved stationary shroud body is made of an open-cell solid ceramic foam having ceramic cell walls with intracellular volume therebetween. The ceramic foam may be tailored to provide requirement properties. The ceramic adjacent to the gas path surface may be modified to increase or decrease its abrasion resistance, depending upon the design requirements of the stationary shroud. The intracellular volume adjacent to the gas-path surface may be porosity. Some of the ceramic material adjacent to the back of the shroud may be removed, and the intracellular volume adjacent to the back of the shroud may be filled with a nickel-base alloy.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: August 20, 2002Assignee: General Electric Co.Inventors: Jerry Donald Schell, Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Richard John Grylls
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Patent number: 6428280Abstract: A protective structure includes a substrate made of a nickel-base superalloy component of a gas turbine engine, and a ceramic thermal barrier coating overlying and bonded to the substrate. The ceramic coating is an open-cell solid foam of aluminum oxide ceramic cell walls having a porous interconnected intracellular volume therebetween. The ceramic coating is prepared by depositing a precursor material onto the surface of the substrate. The precursor material includes a sacrificial ceramic, typically silicon dioxide, and a reactive metal, typically aluminum, which is reactive with the sacrificial ceramic to form an open-celled ceramic foam. The sacrificial ceramic and the reactive metal are reacted together to form ceramic cell walls of an oxidized ceramic of the reactive metal, preferably aluminum oxide, and an interconnected intracellular volume therebetween filled with an intracellular metal. The intracellular metal is thereafter removed to leave a porous intracellular volume.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: August 6, 2002Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Curtiss Mitchell Austin, Richard John Grylls
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Patent number: 6378755Abstract: A joined structure includes a structure made of a structure metal, and a bonding element having a portion made of an open-cell solid ceramic foam. The open-cell solid ceramic foam has ceramic first-portion cell walls, and an intracellular volume therebetween that is filled with a bonding-element metal. A joint between the structure and the bonding element has an interdiffusion between the structure metal and the bonding element metal. A second structure may be joined to the first structure through the bonding element, using the same approach. The joints are formed by contacting the structure to the bonding element, and interdiffusing the metals on each side of the joint.Type: GrantFiled: November 8, 2000Date of Patent: April 30, 2002Assignee: General Electric CompanyInventors: Richard John Grylls, Curtiss Mitchell Austin