General Electric Company

Other

Curtiss Mitchell Austin

Richard John Grylls

Thomas Joseph Kelly

Shyh-Chin Huang

Michael James Weimer

Jerry Donald Schell

Kevin S O'Hara

Ramgopal Darolia

Peter John Linko, Iii

Robert E Allen

Earl W Ross

Paul John Fink

James Jay Kightlinger

Dean A Wheeler

Donald E Larson, Jr

Blair London

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.

Album formed from folded photographic prints

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.

Turbine blade with ceramic foam blade tip seal, and its preparation

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.

Process assembly utilizing fixturing made of an open-cell ceramic solid foam, and its use

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.

Turbine blade or turbine vane made of a ceramic foam joined to a metallic nonfoam, and preparation thereof

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.

Ceramic layer produced by reacting a ceramic precursor with a reactive gas

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.

Article made of a ceramic foam joined to a metallic nonfoam, and its preparation

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.

Gas turbine blisk with ceramic foam blades and its preparation

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.

In-situ formation of a protective coating on a substrate

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.

Transpiration-cooled structure and method for its preparation

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.

Gas turbine stationary shroud made of a ceramic foam material, and its preparation

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.

Structure with ceramic foam thermal barrier coating, and its preparation

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.

Joined structure utilizing a ceramic foam bonding element, and its fabrication

A gamma titanium aluminide alloy article, is prepared using a piece of a gamma titanium aluminide alloy having a composition capable of forming alpha, alpha-2, and gamma phases. The alpha transus temperature of the gamma titanium aluminide alloy piece is determined. The gamma titanium aluminide alloy piece is consolidated by hot isostatic pressing at a temperature of from about 50 F. to about 250 F. below the alpha transus temperature and at a pressure of from about 10,000 to about 30,000 pounds per square inch, for a duration of from about 1 to about 20 hours. The piece is heat treated at a temperature of from about 5 F. to about 300 F. below the alpha transus temperature for a time sufficient to refine the microstructure and generate a microstructure comprising from about 10 to about 90 volume percent gamma phase. The step of heat treating is conducted at a temperature of from about 45 F. to about 200 F. above the temperature of the step of hot isostatic pressing.

Heat treatment of gamma titanium aluminide alloys

A gamma titanium aluminide alloy article is produced from a piece of cast gamma titanium aluminide alloy by consolidating the gamma titanium aluminide alloy piece at a temperature above the eutectoid to reduce porosity therein, preferably by hot isostatic pressing. The piece is first heat treated at a temperature above the eutectoid for a time sufficient to form a structure of gamma grains plus lamellar colonies of alpha and gamma phases, and thereafter second heat treated at a temperature below the eutectoid to grow gamma grains within the colony structure, thereby reducing the effective grain size of the colony structure. There may follow an additional heat treatment just below the alpha transus to reform any remaining colony structure to produce a structure having isolated alpha-two laths within gamma grains.

Method for heat treating gamma titanium aluminide alloys

An as-cast gamma titanium-aluminide alloy, typically having a composition of from about 45.0 to about 48.5 atomic percent aluminum, is pre-HIP heat treated at a temperature of from about 1900.degree. F. to about 2100.degree. F. for a time of from about 50 to about 5 hours. The gamma titanium-aluminide alloy is thereafter hot isostatically pressed at a temperature of about 2200.degree. F. Hot isostatic pressing is preferably followed by a further heat treatment at a temperature of about 1850.degree.-2200.degree. F.

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Loveland, OH, United States of America

Curtiss Mitchell Austin