Deformable, Resilient Or Resiliently Biased Patents (Class 415/156)
  • Patent number: 5035572
    Abstract: An arrangement for adjusting guide blades by thermal expansion has an expansion rod which has a significantly different coefficient of linear expansion with respect to the supporting housing and is aligned in the circumferential direction of the turbo-engine and is connected with an adjusting ring by way of a step-up lever. As a result, a guide blade adjustment can be achieved easily as a function of the working gas temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 1990
    Date of Patent: July 30, 1991
    Assignee: MTU Motoren-und Turbinen-Union Munchen GmbH
    Inventor: Joachim Popp
  • Patent number: 4984965
    Abstract: A mounting assembly for a movable annular wall member of an inlet passageway of a variable geometry turbine. The inlet passageway is defined between the movable wall and a facing wall. The wall member is formed from a sheet material and is supported on a plurality of pins which extend parallel to the direction of movement of the wall member. The wall member comprises a tubular portion extending away from the facing wall and each pin supports a radial extending link. Each link is engaged in a respective slot in the tubular portion of the wall member, the links being a relatively close fit in the direction of movement of the wall member and a relatively loose fit in the circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1989
    Date of Patent: January 15, 1991
    Assignee: Holset Engineering Company Limited
    Inventor: Peter McKean
  • Patent number: 4884944
    Abstract: A flow fence for a turbo fan jet engine, as taught by Stein et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,790, is modified by the provision of serrations about its internal circumference. Thus, when the modified flow fence is inserted into or removed from the flow field, a more gradual transition occurs in the flow thereby improving surge margins.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1988
    Date of Patent: December 5, 1989
    Assignee: Avco Corporation
    Inventor: David L. Tate
  • Patent number: 4874288
    Abstract: An inlet guide vane assembly for a pump or a compressor having rotary blades. The guide vanes pivot in a controlled manner so that a portion of the vanes can be inserted into or withdrawn from the inlet passageway of the pump or the compressor by pivoting the guide vanes about a pivot axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 1988
    Date of Patent: October 17, 1989
    Inventor: D. Davorin Kapich
  • Patent number: 4810165
    Abstract: An adjusting mechanism for pivotal guide blades of turbo-propulsion units in which a rotatable adjusting ring is supported in a concentric support ring. The support ring is heat-insulatingly connected with the turbine housing by way of several connecting lugs or slide block guidances distributed over the circumference and the adjusting ring is connected with the guide blades by way of bendable pivot levers. It is achieved thereby that the heat flow from the hot turbine housing to the adjusting mechanism remains small and an exact adjustment of the guide blades can be achieved in this manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1987
    Date of Patent: March 7, 1989
    Assignee: MTU Motoren- und Turbinen-Union Munchen GmbH
    Inventors: Christian Greune, Hilbert Holzhauer
  • Patent number: 4767264
    Abstract: A vane lever arm for the variable stator/vane assembly of a gas turbine engine that is fabricated from sheet metal and has a flexible thin section to allow out of plane movement and a rigid thicker end for supporting the pin attached to the synchronous ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 1986
    Date of Patent: August 30, 1988
    Assignee: United Technologies Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas L. Kisling, John C. Jones
  • Patent number: 4764088
    Abstract: An inlet guide vane assembly for a pump or a compressor having rotary blades. The guide vanes are pivotably disposed so that a portion of the vanes can be inserted into or withdrawn from the inlet passageway of the pump or the compressor by pivoting the guide vanes about a pivot axes. A control is provided for controlling the degree of pivot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1987
    Date of Patent: August 16, 1988
    Inventor: Davorin D. Kapich
  • Patent number: 4741665
    Abstract: A guide vane for turbo-engines has a stationary vane section and a movable vane section with a gap between the two sections. The gap is covered on one side by a flexible band connected along its tape edges to the vane sections. The other side of the gap is covered by an elastic connected to the stationary vane section along one band edge while the other band edge overlaps part of the movable vane section to permit free relative movement between the elastic band (7) and the movable vane section. A plurality of such guide vanes are mounted at the radially outer end of their position adjustment member to an outer housing ring while the radially inner vane end or at least the radially inner end of the movable vane is free. A common position adjustment ring is connected to all adjustment members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 3, 1988
    Assignee: MTU Motoren- und Turbinen-Union Muenchen GmbH
    Inventor: Hagen Hanser
  • Patent number: 4695220
    Abstract: Disclosed is an actuator for rotating a plurality of circumferentially spaced variable vanes each having a spindle extending through a casing about which the vane is rotatable. The actuator includes an arcuate unison member and a plurality of levers each having first and second ends, respective ones of the levers being fixedly attached to a vane spindle at the lever first end and rotatably attached to the unison member at the lever second end. Frangible means are provided for allowing at least one of the vanes to be rotated to an angular position different from the position of adjacent ones of the vanes upon impact of the one vane by a foreign object, and limit means are provided for maintaining the angular position of the one vane within predetermined limits with respect to the angular position of adjacent vanes to prevent 1/REV excitation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventor: John Dawson
  • Patent number: 4668165
    Abstract: A variable vane assembly is disclosed which entails a vane arm which integrally engages with a vane stem without the use of threaded fasteners. The vane stem has a tip with parallel slots on opposite sides which are spaced below the end of the tip. At the end of the tip is an end slot which is perpendicular to the parallel slots. The tip of the vane stem has a ramped side parallel with the end slot. The vane arm is a flat wide metal strip that serves as the vane blade and integrally connects with the vane stem using two ears, which are turned inwards to engage with the parallel slots in the wave stem. Additionally, a central leaf exists between the two ears which turns downwards to fit in the end slot in the tip of the vane stem. The central leaf thereby acts as an axial retainer and allows the vane arm to be rotated with the rotation of the vane stem.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1986
    Date of Patent: May 26, 1987
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force
    Inventor: George E. Ludwick
  • Patent number: 4527949
    Abstract: A centrifugal machine having a variable diffuser that includes a radially disposed fixed wall and an opposed movable wall defining the diffuser passage. Guideways are formed in the movable wall in which a series of diffuser vanes are slidably mounted. A spring biased retainer loosely holds each of the vanes in an associated guideway and urges the vanes into seating contact with the fixed wall so that each vane can adjust its position in assembly to accommodate for changes in diffuser alignment due to thermal growth or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 1983
    Date of Patent: July 9, 1985
    Assignee: Carrier Corporation
    Inventor: Howard W. Kirtland
  • Patent number: 4390319
    Abstract: A turbine exhaust hood has a flow passage (2) which accommodates a guide member (6) and a deflector (8). The deflector (8) is made from a resilient material and has, when in initial position, a form of a ring with a radial slit, with the axis of said ring being substantially aligned with the turbine axis (7). The deflector (8) is mounted for free movement along the turbine axis (7), which movement is enabled by a mechanism (10) connected with the deflector (8) so that with turbine operating at reduced loads, the deflector (8) forms, together with the guide (6) and the wall of the casing (1), a volute-shaped channel (11). The outlet section (11a) of the channel (11) is disposed at the place of the slit (9) of the ring (8).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1981
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1983
    Inventors: Anatoly V. Garkusha, Vladimir E. Dobrynin
  • Patent number: 4363600
    Abstract: An improved mounting arrangement for an adjustable stator vane of a turbomachine, the vane having a shaft portion projecting through an outer casing of the turbomachine and an annular button portion disposed against a thrust bearing on the inside of the outer casing and the improvement residing in the provision of a spring around the shaft portion which bears at one end against a thrust bearing on the outer casing and at the other end against a rigid cantilever extension of the shaft portion of the vane so that the spring imposes on the shaft portion an offset force which develops a moment counter to a moment developed on the stator vane by passage of compressed gas through the turbomachine thereby to prevent cocking of the stator vane in the outer casing and to more evenly distribute loading on the button portion of the vane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 1981
    Date of Patent: December 14, 1982
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventor: Glenn W. Thebert
  • Patent number: 4324526
    Abstract: An apparatus for improving the efficiency of a turbo-supercharger at low load levels is disclosed. The apparatus includes an annular gas inlet housing which encircles the turbine of the turbo-supercharger and which housing includes an inlet for gases flowing toward the turbine. Arranged within the housing is a diaphragm, an outer periphery of which diaphragm is connected to the housing. Connected to the inner periphery of the diaphragm is a guide vane ring. Biasing springs, arranged within the housing, urge the diaphragm, and thus the guide vane ring connected to the diaphragm, toward the inlet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 1980
    Date of Patent: April 13, 1982
    Assignee: BBC Brown, Bovari & Company, Limited
    Inventors: Max Berchtold, Ernst Jenny
  • Patent number: 4167854
    Abstract: Gearing is normally used to obtain reverse operation from an output turbine. An improvement is provided herein in a torque converter (10) which comprises a stator (12), an impeller (14) and an output turbine (16). The improvement comprises a plurality of self-cambering blades (42) carried by the output turbine (16) with the angle at which fluid impelled by the impeller (14) attacks the self-cambering blades (42) being adjusted to select the direction of rotation of the output turbine (16). In this manner, the output shaft (36), which is driven by the output turbine (16), can be rotated in either a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction thereby driving a vehicle or other machinery in either a forward or reverse direction without the necessity for gearing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 1978
    Date of Patent: September 18, 1979
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventors: Donald P. Diemer, Martin C. Gunton, Charles R. Miller
  • Patent number: 4054398
    Abstract: A diffuser for a centrifugal compressor or a nozzle assembly for a centripetal turbine comprising a pair of axially-spaced walls defining an annular housing open at its inner and outer peripheries and a plurality of vanes extending between the walls and defining therewith, between adjacent vanes, working fluid passages open to the inner and outer peripheries of the housing, each vane being defined by a pair of partitions having a common edge extending between the housing walls adjacent the inner periphery of the housing and spaced apart circumferentially at positions remote from the inner periphery of the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: October 18, 1977
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventor: Robert Noel Penny
  • Patent number: 4029433
    Abstract: A stator vane assembly for a compressor or turbine of a gas turbine engine. The stator vane assembly comprises a plurality of circumferentially-spaced stator vanes extending in a generally radial direction between radially spaced co-axial annular walls mounted co-axially on a rotor of the compressor or turbine. The vanes are flexible and are engaged at at least one position in the radial length thereof by an axially movable annular vane-deflecting member, whereby the vanes are deflectable in cross-sectional shape depending upon the axial position of the vane-deflecting member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 1975
    Date of Patent: June 14, 1977
    Assignee: Caterpillar Tractor Co.
    Inventors: Robert Noel Penny, Peter Boden Candy
  • Patent number: 4007998
    Abstract: An adjustable blade assembly for use in a rotary machine, such as a turbine or a compressor, wherein the airfoil is separable from the assembly at the blade platform. The airfoil is provided with a root which is seated within a complementary kerf formed within the platform. Each of the two sections is fabricated independently using standard machine tools, thereby eliminating the need of hand-forming, complex blade contours. In assembly, the airfoil is loosely supported within the platform whereby the stresses generated at resonant frequencies are highly damped.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 1975
    Date of Patent: February 15, 1977
    Assignee: Carrier Corporation
    Inventors: George A. Blasiole, Alexander A. Carroll
  • Patent number: 3972643
    Abstract: A centrifugal pump with its impeller arranged beside the main media current in the pump housing (Vortex impeller pump) is provided with an inner part of resilient material which part forms the inlet of the pump. When a certain maximum volume goes into the pumphousing, the inlet edges fold inwards thus diminishing the inlet area and preventing the volume current from increasing over a certain value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 1975
    Date of Patent: August 3, 1976
    Assignee: ITT Industries, Inc.
    Inventor: Ingemar Franzen