General Electric Company

Joseph C Young

Norbert J Hester

Charles E Hornbeck

Bruce W Stowe

David W Leiby

Jerome P Clark

An instrumentation light probe holder for use in observing and measuring operating characteristics of rotating blades of a gas turbine engine during engine operation or rotating components of a machine during operation is disclosed. The holder includes an elongated cylindrical member for insertion into an opening or bore formed radially through an annular casing of the gas turbine engine or machine housing. The cylindrical member has a hollow interior for receipt of an instrumentation light probe and a first end for insertion into the casing or housing and for holding an operating end of the probe at a selected set-back distance from the rotating blades or components. A grasping mechanism is provided for releasably holding the light probe in the cylindrical member.

Instrumentation light probe holder

A hot gas turbine engine capacitive probe clearanceometer is employed to measure the clearance gap or distance between blade tips on a rotor wheel and its confining casing under operating conditions. A braze sealed tip of the probe carries a capacitor electrode which is electrically connected to an electrical inductor within the probe which is inserted into a turbine casing to position its electrode at the inner surface of the casing. Electrical power is supplied through a voltage controlled variable frequency oscillator having a tuned circuit in which the probe is a component. The oscillator signal is modulated by a change in electrical capacitance between the probe electrode and a passing blade tip surface while an automatic feedback correction circuit corrects oscillator signal drift. A change in distance between a blade tip and the probe electrode is a change in capacitance therebetween which frequency modulates the oscillator signal. The modulated oscillator signal which is then processed through a phase detector and related circuitry to provide an electrical signal is proportional to the clearance gap.

Electrical capacitance clearanceometer

The present invention comprises a connector adapted to receive fiber cables. The connector comprises a housing including a first opening and a second opening which includes a first beveled portion. The connector further comprises a means for holding and aligning a cable and being adapted to slidably fit into the first opening, a wedge means adapted to slidably fit into the second opening, and means for fastening the wedge means to the housing. A means for preventing free rotation of the wedge means in absence of the holding and aligning means is also included. The second opening is machined such that the wedge means is forced against the holding and aligning means as the wedge means is moved into the second opening.

Fiber optic connector

In the present invention, a support positions a target within the field of view of the borescope. The target is in the focal plane of the borescope and contains a series of parallel images of progressively finer detail. The image having the finest detail which is detectable by the borescope gives a measure of the borescope's resolving power.

Borescope calibration

A method and apparatus for obtaining a cold clearance measurement between a rotating member and a stationary member of a partially or fully assembled turbine, using measuring equipment which can be removed from within the turbine without requiring turbine disassembly.

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Cincinnati, OH, United States of America

Joseph C Young