General Electric Company

Francis Lawrence Kirkpatrick

Raymond J Jones

Margaret Jones Schotsch

John Robert Fulton

Ronald Scott Bunker

Melvin Robert Jackson

Bin Wei

Ann Melinda Ritter

Nesim Abuaf

John R Hughes

Francisco J Cunha

Eric Michael Lapine

George Gerald Gunn

James Lee Burns

Parvangada Ganapathy Bojappa

Rajiv Rajan

Turbine vane segments having outer and inner bands and a vane extending therebetween are welded one to the other by E-beam welding along their adjoining margins and from the outside of the bands. The adjoining margins on the hot gas path sides of the outer and inner bands are chamfered, TIG-welded and machined to provide a smooth, continuous gas path surface. The aft hook of each segment is cut back to provide inset faces in a radially projecting flange and a flange extending axially from the radial flange. A filler piece having a body shaped to correspond to the shape of the space between the inset faces of the radial flange is E-beam welded to the radial flange. Gaps between a tongue on the filler piece and the inset faces of the axially extending flange are provided with weld filler material and TIG-welded to complete the welding of the aft hook.

Stator vane assembly for a turbine and method for forming the assembly

A guide tube is fixed adjacent opposite ends in outer and inner covers of a nozzle stage segment. The guide tube is serpentine in shape between the outer and inner covers and extends through a nozzle vane. An insert is disposed in the nozzle vane and has apertures to accommodate serpentine portions of the guide tube. Cooling steam is also supplied through chambers of the insert on opposite sides of a central insert chamber containing the guide tube. The opposite ends of the guide tube are fixed to sleeves, in turn fixed to the outer and inner covers.

Turbine nozzle stage having thermocouple guide tube

A steam-cooled second-stage nozzle segment has an outer band and an outer cover defining a plenum therebetween for receiving cooling steam for flow through the nozzles to the inner band and cover therefor and return flow through the nozzles. To measure the temperature of the buckets of the stage forwardly of the nozzle stage, a pyrometer boss is electron beam-welded in an opening through the outer band and TIG-welded to the outer cover plate. By machining a hole through the boss and seating a linearly extending tube in the boss, a line of sight between a pyrometer mounted on the turbine frame and the buckets is provided whereby the temperature of the buckets can be ascertained. The welding of the boss to the outer band and outer cover enables steam flow through the plenum without leakage, while providing a line of sight through the outer cover and outer band to measure bucket temperature.

Pyrometer mount for a closed-circuit thermal medium cooled gas turbine

A post-cast EDM process is used to remove material from the interior surface of a nozzle vane cavity of a turbine. A thin electrode is passed through the cavity between opposite ends of the nozzle vane and displaced along the interior nozzle wall to remove the material along a predetermined path, thus reducing the thickness of the wall between the cavity and the external surface of the nozzle. In another form, an EDM process employing a profile as an electrode is disposed in the cavity and advanced against the wall to remove material from the wall until the final wall thickness is achieved, with the interior wall surface being complementary to the profile surface.

Post-cast EDM method for reducing the thickness of a turbine nozzle wall

Methods of making cylindrical structures with cooling channels, such as, for example, combustor/transition pieces for gas turbines having a double wall with a plurality of cooling channels, both axially and, in some cases, circumferential cross-flow passages positioned between the structure's inner member and the outer member to provide cooling air thereto, are disclosed. The cooling channels are formed in the area between the inner member of the structure and the outer member thereof. The passages preferably extend both axially and circumferentially with respect to the direction of flow through the structure. The axial passages extend completely from one end to the other and the circumferential passages extend around the circumference of the structure.

Method for making cylindrical structures with cooling channels

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Galway, NY, United States of America

Francis Lawrence Kirkpatrick