General Electric Company

Gregory Norman Fournier

James Royce Howes

Maurice David Fournier

Gregory Lee Landry

David Elliott Shapiro

Charles Byron Adams

Eric Donald Anderson

Steven Kerry Williams

Systems are provided for a blade installation tool. The blade installation tool may include a vertical guide having a vertical ram path. A ram may be disposed along the vertical guide. The ram can move along the vertical ram path between a lower position and an upper position at a height above the lower position. Gravity may drive the ram from the upper position toward the lower position to provide an impact force of the ram against a blade segment of a turbine or a compressor. The height of the upper position is variable so as to control the impact force.

Apparatus and method for turbine blade installation

Airfoils and grooves on the rotor or carrier for the airfoils have generally complementary dovetail shapes. The airfoils are installed in the grooves by sliding the bases of the airfoils along the circumferential grooves into final circumferential positions. At each circumferential position, a pin is driven between the base of the airfoil and the bottom of the groove to displace the airfoil radially into a final radially secured position taking up the clearance necessary to enable sliding movement of the airfoils about the groove. A first tool is used to drive each pin in a generally tangential direction by hammering on the end of the tool, transmitting an axial force to the pin. When the circumferential clearance of the last installed airfoil is insufficient to permit further use of a tangentially oriented tool to install additional airfoils, a second tool having an angled head is disposed into the groove to engage the pin. By hammering on the second tool, a component of the applied force drives the pins between the airfoil bases and the bottom of the groove to finally secure the remaining airfoils in a fixed radial position.

Methods of assembling airfoils to turbine components and assemblies thereof

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Hermon, ME, United States of America

Gregory Norman Fournier