General Electric Company

James N Fleck

James Stephen Shaw

Gary Charles Liotta

Paul J Acquaviva

Angelo V Koschier

Hagen R Mauch

A component for use in a flow path of a gas turbine engine. The component includes a body having an exterior surface mountable in the gas turbine engine so the exterior surface is exposed to gases flowing through the flow path of the engine. The body has a cooling hole extending through the body to the exterior surface for transporting cooling air from a cooling air source outside the flow path of the engine to the exterior surface of the body for providing a layer of cooling air adjacent the exterior surface of the body to cool the surface and create a thermal barrier between the exterior surface and the gases flowing through the flow path of the gas turbine engine. The cooling hole is defined by an elongate annular surface extending through the body of the component and terminating at the exterior surface of the body. The hole has a length, a maximum width less than about 0.010 inches, and a cross-sectional shape which varies along the length in a predetermined manner for affecting characteristics of cooling air transported through the hole.

Turbulated cooling holes

Method of making turbulated cooling holes

A turbine airfoil includes pressure and suction sides extending longitudinally from root to tip, and chordally between leading and trailing edges. A striated discharge hole terminates outside the airfoil for discharging coolant therefrom.

Striated cooling hole

A composite shaft whose construction and fabrication enable precise placement and orientation of reinforcement fiber bundles, enable close control of runout, and eliminate a separate joining operation for attaching mechanical drive couplings. The composite shaft generally includes an inner shell, a spacing member circumscribing and contacting the inner shell, and a bundle of fibers disposed in each of a number of longitudinally-extending cavities in the spacing member. The shaft also has an outer portion that encases the fiber bundles in the spacing member. The shaft preferably includes end pieces attached to the end of the shaft and adapted as mechanical coupling features. At least the end pieces, spacing member and fiber bundles are joined in a manner that defines a metal matrix surrounding and encasing the fiber bundles.

High-stiffness composite shaft

A gas turbine engine airfoil is manufactured by forming an internal retention seat in two complementary airfoil parts. An insert is fabricated for retention in the seat. The two parts are assembled with the insert disposed in the seat therebetween. The parts are then bonded together to trap the insert therein to collectively define the airfoil. The insert and seat may be precisely fabricated for improving the efficiency of the airfoil.

Trapped insert turbine airfoil

A method of making a hollow airfoil includes machining first and second parts to produce internal features thereof. The parts are then co-machined simultaneously at complementary joining surfaces. The parts are then bonded together at the co-machined joining surfaces.

Co-machined bonded airfoil

A process for manufacturing a component in which residual tensile stresses are present in the component surface as a result of the operation by which the surface was produced. The process generally entails removing residual tensile stresses and inducing compressive stresses in the surface of a component by controlled impacting of the surface with two or more jets of fluid. An additional benefit of this invention is that damaged surface regions of the component can be removed simultaneously with residual tensile stresses by abrading the damaged surface region with a jet of abrasive fluid. The fluid jet employed to abrade the component surface is preferably at a pressure of at least 1360 bar, while the fluid jet employed to induce compressive stresses in the component surface is preferably at a pressure of at least 1700 bar. The second fluid jet can be operated to remove any embedded abrasive grit remaining from the first fluid jet operation.

Growing community of inventors

Boxford, MA, United States of America

James N Fleck