General Electric Company

Anand Aravindrao Kulkarni

Ravindra Shankar Ganiger

Richard Alan Wesling

Nathan Evan McCurdy Gibson

Narendra Anand Hardikar

David Orus Fitts

David Robert Schumacher

Laurence Scott Duclos

Brian Joseph Prenger

David Bruce Knorr

Aspirating face seal between high and low pressure regions of turbomachine between rotatable and non-rotatable members of turbomachine includes gas bearing rotatable and non-rotatable face surfaces, non-rotatable face surface mounted on annular slider on non-rotatable member. Retracting means retracts annular slider away from rotatable member and non-rotatable face surface away from rotatable surface and includes circumferentially spaced apart non-coiled springs axially disposed between slider and non-rotatable engine member. Leaf springs may include first and second ends mounted or attached to first and second mounting lugs or tabs attached to non-rotatable member and slider respectively and middle portion between ends. Springs oriented for retracting slider if slider contacts rotatable member. Primary and starter seal teeth may be mounted on carrier on rotatable member. Primary seal tooth may be on non-rotatable member and starter seal tooth on rotatable member.

Aspirating face seal with non-coiled retraction springs

A nozzle assembly includes at least one stationary nozzle and an outer ring having a predefined shape. The outer ring includes at least one groove defined therein configured to receive at least a portion of the at least one stationary nozzle. The nozzle assembly also includes an attachment member coupled between the stationary nozzle and the outer ring. The attachment member has a first configuration at a first nozzle assembly operating temperature a second configuration at a second nozzle assembly operating temperature.

Methods and systems for securing turbine nozzles

Growing community of inventors

Karnataka, India

Anand Aravindrao Kulkarni