Rolls-royce Corporation

Rolls-royce High Temperature Composites Inc.

Andrew J Ritchey

Michael George Glavicic

Sungbo Shim

Scott Nelson

Sean E Landwehr

Robert J Shinavski

Joseph Peter Henderkott

Stephen Isaiah Harris

Jeffrey M Crutchfield

Kong Ma

Joseph Gordon Doyle

Tyler Mason

Methods of pressure assisted melt infiltration of fiber preforms are provided. The fiber preform is provided inside of a pressure vessel. The pressure vessel projects into a molten material contained in a crucible. The pressure vessel has an opening located below a surface of the molten material through which the molten material enters the pressure vessel. An end of the fiber preform contacts the molten material within the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel and crucible are located in a furnace. The molten material is pulled within the pressure vessel by increasing a first pressure at a first port of the furnace so the first pressure is higher than a second pressure at a second port of the pressure vessel. The second port is located above the molten material located within the pressure vessel. The fiber preform is infiltrated with the molten material.

Pressure assisted melt infiltration

The disclosure describes a system that includes a controller configured to receive a representation of a three-dimensional geometry of a preform, determine a set of dimensions of the preform from the representation of the preform, and determine dimensions of at least one insert for a fixed tooling based on a dimensional tolerance of the preform, the set of dimensions of the preform, and dimensions of the fixed tooling.

Tooling inserts for ceramic matrix composites

A method of infiltrating a fiber preform comprises positioning an assembly in a process chamber, where the assembly includes a tool comprising through-holes, a fiber preform constrained within the tool, and a sacrificial preform disposed between the fiber preform and the tool. The sacrificial preform is gas permeable. The process chamber is heated, and gaseous reactants are delivered into the process chamber during the heating. The gaseous reactants penetrate the through-holes of the tool and infiltrate the sacrificial preform and the fiber preform. Deposition of reaction products occurs on exposed surfaces of the fiber preform and the sacrificial preform, and a coating is formed thereon. In addition, the sacrificial preform accumulates excess coating material formed from increased reactions at short diffusion depths. Accordingly, the coating formed on the fiber preform exhibits a thickness variation of about 10% or less throughout a volume of the fiber preform.

Assembly for chemical vapor infiltration of a fiber preform and method of infiltrating a fiber preform

A ceramic matrix composite (CMC) is formed by infiltrating a metal or alloy into a fiber preform in a reactor or furnace that is separated into multiple discrete temperature zones. The gradual cooling of the CMC is controlled, such that upon solidification, a narrow, planar, solidification front is created which allows the expanding metal or alloy to move into a hotter section of the fiber preform, opposed to the surface of the CMC. A discrete solidification front is established that moves through the ceramic matrix composite (CMC) as the composite cools.

Discrete solidification of melt infiltration

A method includes receiving a cross-sectional image of a component, including a plurality of pixels representing the component, at a perspective, determining a threshold color value based on color values associated with the plurality of pixels, and setting an updated color value for each pixel of the plurality of pixels based on the threshold color value. The method includes analyzing a set of adjacent pixels of the cross-sectional image that is selected based on a geometric parameter based on an expected geometry of a physical domain of the component, identifying a plurality of adjacent pixels from the set of adjacent pixels that is likely to be associated with the physical domain of the component based on the updated color values associated with the plurality of adjacent pixels, and outputting a representation of the component including the plurality of adjacent pixels that are likely to be associated with the physical domain.

Representation of a component using cross-sectional images

The disclosure describes a method by a controller that includes: executing a model of a material based on a geometric template of the material defined by geometric parameters and at least one geometric constraint of the material; determining a value of an objective function based on differences between a three-dimensional representation of the material based on measurements of the material and the model of the material based on the geometric template of the material; and determining updated values of the geometric parameters of the geometric template. The method further includes iterating the executing the model of the material, the determining the value of the objective function, and the determining the updated values of the geometric parameters until a parameter associated with the objective function satisfies a criterion and, outputting the updated values of the geometric parameters associated with the objective function that satisfies the criterion.

Representation-based hybrid model

A method may include positioning a multilayer braze tape at a joint between a first part comprising a ceramic or CMC and a second part comprising at least one of a ceramic, a CMC, a metal, or an alloy. The multilayer braze tape may include at least one layer comprising a silicon-containing braze material and at least one layer comprising a reinforcement material. The method also may include applying pressure to compress the multilayer braze tape between the first part and the second part, and heating the multilayer braze tape to melt the silicon-containing braze material and join the first part and the second part.

Multilayer braze tape

A method includes obtaining an image of a feature machined in a component with an imaging device, determining, by a computing device, a quality of the feature in the component based on the image of the feature, and storing, by the computing device, an indication of the quality of the feature in combination with a unique identifier for the feature in a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

Growing community of inventors

Seal Beach, CA, United States of America

Andrew J Ritchey