General Electric Company

Eric E Baehre

Christopher Charles Glynn

Donald L Bellia

Brian J Humke

Henry B Stueber

Robert Paul Czachor

Thomas G Wakeman

Richard William Albrecht, Jr

Michael Leon Barron

Robert J Hemmelgarn

A blade containment system is disclosed which includes an annular casing positioned radially outward of the blades and in surrounding relationship therewith, the annular casing including a plurality of composite tapes bonded to the outer or inner radial surfaces thereof, wherein the composite tapes limit the propagation of cracks and holes formed in the annular casing.

Blade containment system

A stator seal assembly for a gas turbine engine of a type having a high pressure compressor section and a high pressure turbine section, the stator seal having a seal segment extending between a stator vane support structure and disk seal teeth, the stator seal segment having an arm for forming a cavity, a retaining segment attached to the seal segment and the arm for sealing the cavity to form a dead air space, a control ring located in the cavity having a coefficient of thermal expansion lower than a coefficient of thermal expansion for the seal segment, and a honeycomb pad located between the arm and the seal teeth, whereby thermal expansion clearance between the stator vane and the rotor disk is minimized.

Stator seal assembly providing improved clearance control

A compressor outlet guide vane (OGV) assembly includes inner and outer annular OGV walls, having outlet guide vanes mounted therebetween, are in abutting relationship with the corresponding leading edges of respective inner and outer diffuser casings and not welded to or otherwise supported by the leading edges of the diffuser casings as in the prior art. The OGV assembly is attached to an annular OGV support member that extends from a portion of a corresponding OGV wall circumscribing the thick section of the OGVs. This assembly decouples the inner and outer OGV annular walls from moments or thermally induced radial loads that may be transferred to the OGV walls due to the interface of the diffuser casings and OGV walls and which may in turn induce failure causing stresses in the OGV trailing edges. One particular embodiment provides an inner conical OGV support member mounted to the inner annular OGV wall at its forward end and bolted, at its aft end, to the inner diffuser support member, which is typically cast integral with the diffuser, and with the inner turbine support member. Another embodiment provides inner and outer conical OGV support members engaging radially extending flange like extensions of corresponding inner and outer diffuser casings.

Compressor outlet guide vane support

The present invention provides a threaded insert assembly with a locking plate having a non-circular shape and a non-serrated outer edge instead of a conventional circular shaped locking ring having a circular serrated outer edge. The non-circular locking plate is shaped to engage mating edges of a correspondingly shaped recess formed in the anchoring structure so as prevent the insert from rotating out of the anchoring structure once the insert is locked into the plate. The threaded insert is secured to the locking plate by interdigitated serrations swaged into engagement.

Removable threaded fastener with locking plate

A compressor discharge flowpath for a gas turbine engine includes flowpath outer and inner walls joined to a plurality of circumferentially spaced flowpath dividers extending therebetween. An inner support extends from the inner wall and is joined to a turbine nozzle, and an outer support extends from the outer wall and is joined to an engine casing. The outer support preferably includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced beams being sized and configured for carrying both axial force and torque transmitted therethrough from the turbine nozzle to the casing while allowing the beams to bend radially for accommodating differential thermal movement between the casing and the outer wall.

Growing community of inventors

West Chester, OH, United States of America

Eric E Baehre