General Electric Company

Mti Microfuel Cells Inc.

Michael Patrick Manning

Robert Timothy Lembke

Larry Steven Rosenzweig

Mark Markovitz

Xiaoming Ren

Robin Carl Schwant

Peter W Schilke

James Oldham Lambert

Lena A Guleserian

Daniel R Tommasone

Ashish K Modi

Celia Ann Dieterich

A fuel reservoir having a reticulated material, generally a felt or a foam, disposed therein is provided. The addition of this reticulated material, either alone or in combination with a viscous fuel, assists the prevention of undesired flow of the fuel, the minimization of undesired leakages, and assists in orientation independence and uniform distribution of the fuel in the reservoir. The reticulated material enables the use of a viscous liquid fuel that has fuel diffusion rates and fuel utilization characteristics that approach those of neat liquid methanol. The material also helps create a greater surface area for evaporation, thus allowing a highly concentrated, vaporous fuel substance to be delivered to an associated fuel cell.

Fuel container with reticulated material

A heat treatment process is provided that produces a monoblock, low alloy steel rotor for use in low pressure steam turbines. The process includes austenitizing the rotor at a substantially uniformly applied treatment temperature of about 840&deg; C., quenching the rotor, and then differentially tempering the rotor at different axial locations. The rotor is tempered in a furnace divided into regions by refractory boards enabling different temperatures in each divided region to be maintained. A higher than normal strength condition is achieved in one or more axial locations along the rotor by subjecting the location(s) to a lower tempering temperature. The axial location(s) being tempered at lower temperature approximate those locations less susceptible to stress corrosion cracking whereby increased strength is provided the rotor without increasing net susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking.

High strength steam turbine rotor and methods of fabricating the rotor without increased stress corrosion cracking

A resistance temperature detector (RTD) unit includes an RTD assembly that is removably supported in a central chamber of a support assembly. In a preferred arrangement, the RTD assembly and the central chamber are arc shaped to facilitate removal from the support assembly and to maintain contact surface area. By providing a removable RTD assembly, costs are reduced over current RTD assemblies including two monitoring elements, and the RTD elements can be replaced without dismantling the top bar connections.

Resistance temperature detector assembly and method of fabricating same

A method of creating a brazed joint between a plurality of solid and hollow strands of a stator bar and a stator bar end fitting comprising the steps of:

Brazing procedure for generator liquid cooled stator bars

A threaded fastener and a method by which the fastener exhibits sufficiently enhanced fatigue strength so as to be suitable for use in gas compressors and turbines operating at relatively high service temperatures. The method entails a selective heat treatment to achieve a dramatic improvement in fatigue properties while not interfering with other required properties for the fastener. The heat treatment process preferentially develops a case-hardened region in those threads nearest a transition region between the threads and an unthreaded portion of the fastener. In contrast, the unthreaded portion and the threads furthest from the transition region need not be case-hardened. The hardening pattern in the threads yields a martensitic steel fastener that exhibits fatigue properties which are dramatically superior to otherwise identical fasteners.

Threaded fastener and method of improving the fatigue life thereof

The method includes sealing the stator bar end connections from within the stator bar end fitting. Particularly, a low viscosity epoxy is initially applied from within the chamber of the end fitting by use of a boroscope and a syringe-type applicator, the low viscosity epoxy being applied to all joints between the adjacent strands of the stator bar and between the fitting and the outermost strands of the stator bar. A high viscosity epoxy is then applied over the low viscosity epoxy using the boroscope and applicator to provide a thick barrier seal between the liquid coolant in the chamber and the brazing material. The epoxy is then cured. The process ensures that the brazing material is isolated from the liquid coolant by the barrier seal whereby potential leaks are prevented and partially developed leaks or leaks extant are arrested because sealant material is disposed at the liquid coolant/braze interface.

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Watervliet, NY, United States of America

Michael Patrick Manning