General Electric Company

Michael Beverley

John Howard Starkweather

Leslie Eugene Leeke, Jr

Jeffrey Arnold Fehrenbach

Ching-Pang Lee

Darek Tomasz Zatorski

Jeffrey Allen Conner

John Peter Heyward

Leslie Eugene Leeke Jr

An apparatus enables a turbine nozzle, including at least two turbine nozzle singlets to be fabricated. Each singlet includes inner and outer bands and a vane extending therebetween. The vane also includes first and second sidewalls coupled together at a leading edge and a trailing edge. The apparatus comprises a fixture, and at least two support members extending from the fixture. Each support member has first and second abutment surfaces, wherein a first of the at least two support members contacts at least one of the leading and trailing edges of a first of the vanes. At least two locating features extend from the fixture, wherein a first of the locating features contacts one of the first and second sidewalls of the first vane. At least two biasing members are coupled to the fixture, wherein a first of the biasing members biases the first vane against the first locating feature.

Methods and apparatus for fabricating a turbine nozzle assembly

A method enables a gas turbine engine to be operated. The method comprises supplying cooling fluid into a manifold ring that includes a plurality of distribution ports defined by a sidewall connected by a radially inner wall, channeling the cooling fluid circumferentially through the manifold ring and through at least one distribution port that is defined by a wall that extends arcuately across at least one turbine nozzle, and discharging cooling fluid from the distribution ports radially inwardly towards the at least one turbine nozzle positioned radially inward from the manifold ring.

Methods and apparatus for supplying cooling fluid to turbine nozzles

A cooling hole configuration for an air-cooled component, such as a gas turbine engine airfoil. The cooling hole is configured to have cross-sectional variations and a noncircular-shaped diffuser-type opening that significantly improve the cooling film distribution across the external surface of an airfoil, with the result that heat transfer from the surrounding environment to the airfoil is reduced. The cooling hole is configured to have its central axis at an acute angle to the exterior surface of the airfoil, and defines a noncircular-shaped opening at the airfoil surface. The cooling hole generally has a first region adjacent the airfoil surface and a second region interior to the airfoil. The cooling hole is configured such that the second region has an oblong or oval-shaped cross-section, with a major diameter approximately equal to the major diameter of the first region and a minor diameter less than the major diameter of the first region, with a smooth transition existing between the first and second regions. The oblong shape of the second region is preferably the result of a recess being present in the wall of the cooling hole opposite the direction in which the cooling hole extends toward the airfoil surface, causing the central axis of the cooling hole to have an arcuate shape in which the central axis is disposed at a lesser angle to the airfoil surface in the first region than the angle in the second region. The cooling hole can be generated using a water jet technique.

Shaped cooling hole for an airfoil

A method of forming a shaped hole in a substrate, including substrates protected by coatings, as is the case where an air-cooled component has a thermal barrier coating for protection from a hostile thermal environment, such as the turbine, combustor and augmentor sections of a gas turbine engine. In particular, cooling holes are formed in an air-cooled component after a ceramic layer has been deposited on the surface of the component without damaging or spalling the ceramic layer. Processing steps generally include forming a hole through the ceramic layer and a substrate protected by the ceramic layer, thereby defining an opening at the surface of the ceramic layer. The diameter of the hole is less than the final size required for the cooling hole. A high-pressure abrasive fluid stream is then directed into the hole to enlarge the cross-section of the hole and impart a noncircular shape to the opening by removing portions of the substrate and ceramic layer without removing the ceramic layer surrounding the resulting noncircular-shaped opening. In a preferred embodiment, the abrasive fluid stream is traversed across the surface of the ceramic through a series of nested patterns that are not concentric with the central axis of the hole. Preferably, the hole acquires the desired noncircular shape in the ceramic layer, but retains a circular shape in the substrate.

Method for forming shaped holes

A method of forming a thermal barrier coating system on an article subjected to a hostile thermal environment, such as the hot gas path components of a gas turbine engine. The coating system is generally composed of a ceramic layer and preferably a bond coat that adheres the ceramic layer to the component surface. Surface features such as grooves are cast directly into the surface of the component. If the bond coat is present, the grooves in the component surface cause the bond coat to also have grooves that generally correspond to the grooves in the component surface.

Growing community of inventors

West Chester, OH, United States of America

Michael Beverley