United Technologies Corporation

Donald E Army, Jr

Christopher McAuliffe

Michael D Greenberg

John P Nikkanen

Brian G Donnelly

George Eugene Wilmot, Jr

Gordon D Tichiaz

William C Crabtree

A bypass valve for use with a component of an air cycle machine is disclosed, wherein the component includes a conditioning member, an inlet and an outlet. The air cycle machine includes a component housing portion. The component housing portion defines a first volume and includes a port for receiving the valve. The valve comprises a housing for mating with the port, an air entrance opening adapted to be positioned adjacent the inlet, an air exit opening adapted to be positioned adjacent the outlet, and a valve portion for controlling at least one of temperature and pressure of the air at the outlet. Control is accomplished by permitting air flow from the entrance opening to the exit opening and bypassing the conditioning member and by prohibiting air flow from the entrance opening to the exit opening for directing substantially all of the air into the conditioning member. The valve portion is substantially entirely positioned inside of the first volume in the port. An air cycle system using the bypass valve is also disclosed.

Integral bypass valves and air cycle machine

A baffle insert or sleeve is disclosed for the integration of the downstream pressure tap into a pressure regulation valve ('PRY') for an aircraft environmental control system ('ECS'). The purpose of this insert is to return the flow, disturbed by the pivoting disk of a butterfly valve, to a more normal distribution within the length of the valve body. This allows the PRV downstream pressure tap to be part of the valve, instead of it (along with additional plumbing) being located four more pipe diameters beyond the valve housing.

Pressure regulation valve with integrated downstream pressure tap

An air mixer, with a water collector, is disclosed for supplying recirculated cabin air in aircraft. In the preferred embodiment: used cabin air flows over pipes of colder fresh air to cool the used air and condense out most of the moisture contained in it; the fresh air and used air are passed over opposite faces of a ring of stator vanes, thereby imparting swirls to both types of airstreams; and the streams meet at the trailing tips of the stator vanes, where they corkscrew together to throw remaining coalesced moisture against a collection trough, from where it is discharged. The airstreams can now be injected into the cabin without droplets raining down on the passengers, nor ice clogging any pipes for the fresh air, which is typically supplied at below-freezing temperature.

Air mixer with water separator

A pneumatic starter (10) incorporates a pawl and ratchet clutch assembly (50) having a ratchet member (46) mounted to a drive member (40) powered by an air expansion turbine (20), and a plurality of pawls (48) disposed circumferentially about the ratchet member (46) and operable in engagement therewith to transmit rotational drive torque from the drive member (40) to a driven member (60). Each of the pawls (48) is supported on a pivot pin (52) for pivotal movement into and out of engagement with the ratchet member (46) about its pivot axis (55). Preload springs (54) are provided for biasing the pawls (48) to pivot radially inwardly into engagement with the ratchet member (46). A weight ball (82) is disposed in a slot (80) extending along each pawl (48) so as to define a travel path between the toe end (47) and the heel end (48) thereof. As the ball (82) rolls along the travel path in response to the rotational speed of the driven member (60), the center of gravity (93) of the pawl shifts relative to its pivot axis (55).

Pawl and ratchet clutch having pawl with shifting center of gravity

A fan inlet and diffuser apparatus (30) is provided with a lobed mixer (60) for intermixing fan bypass air (25) with a flow of fan discharge air (27). The fan inlet and diffuser apparatus (30) is particularly adapted for use in a inducing a flow of cooling air (21) through an upstream heat exchanger (20) and thence directing a portion (23) of the cooling air passing from the heat exchanger to the inlet side of the fan (14) of an air cycle machine (10), while directing the remaining portion (25) to bypass the fan (14) and pass into the central outlet flow passage (52) flowing over the mixing ejector (60) which imparts a directional swirl to the bypass flow (25) and a counter swirl to the fan discharge flow (27) passing from the fan outlet through the interior of the mixer (60), thereby enhancing the mixing of these two flows within the passage (52).

Growing community of inventors

Springfield, MA, United States of America

Donald E Army, Jr