General Electric Company

Richard J Keck

Dennis R Ulery

Steven Charles Walko

Edmund E Kazmierczak

Vincent G Terry

James R Pedersen

Thomas E Van Schaick

Duncan N Walker

Brian E Gott

Theodore S Kralovic

Frank Zwack, Sr

Yu Wang

Christopher Anthony Kaminski

Walter Whipple

Raymond Alan White

Kamlesh Mundra

Robert E Sundell

Blake Weldon Wilson

Thomas R Byrne

Kirk G O'Brien

Harold J Jenkins

Marcus Preston Boron

Gary G Wegner

Michael J Bigelow

A non-metallic structural enclosure for a generator rotor replaces conventional containment components including rotor wedges, rotor teeth and retaining rings. The enclosure includes a non-metallic tube formed of a plurality of spaced rings or of a continuous tube including ventilation holes or slots. The simplified rotor assembly serves to restrain the winding against centrifugal forces with a more highly optimized use of space and materials. The arrangement allows more space for copper and ventilation, thereby benefiting both efficiency and the performance of the machine. The use of individual rings has the additional benefit of providing restraint against centrifugal forces without reducing the effectiveness of cross slots in the rotor body from correcting peripheral dissymmetries in rotor stiffness. The rings also provide openings for ventilation without introducing stress concentrations in the enclosure.

Non-metallic structural rotor enclosure

A splice connector includes a first coupling electrically connected to a first cable or conductor and a second coupling electrically connected to a second cable or conductor. Both couplings include at least one electrically conductive spade. The second coupling engages the first coupling so that the respective spades contact each other, thereby electrically connecting the two cables or conductors. Due to its construction and mass, this connector can be used in high temperature, high-G environments.

Splice connector and method of using the same

The generator frame includes an inner frame module having openings at opposite ends sufficiently large to permit installation of various elements of the stator core, including the laminations and windings. Separate end cap modules having openings for receiving the rotor, as well as integral pedestal supports, are fabricated separately from the inner frame module and later secured, for example, by bolting, to the inner frame. Upon installation of the rotor, a packaged generator is afforded which can be bolted directly to a foundation at the installation site without an intervening base assembly.

Modular generator frame construction

The tilt pad journal bearing assembly includes a conduit within the bearing housing for supplying lubricant hydrostatically to each tilt bearing pad. The conduit includes a flexible segment coupled at respective opposite ends to the tilt pad and to a quick connect/disconnect coupling extending through an aperture in the side wall of the bearing housing. A supply line is coupled to each supply conduit adjacent the side wall by the quick connect/disconnect coupling. The flexible segment within the bearing housing accommodates the rocking motion of the tilt pad and the design and routing of the external supply line is therefore not dependent on any requirements of the bearing assembly. To service the bearing assembly, a set screw is unscrewed, permitting a portion of a coupler, together with a bushing to be withdrawn through the aperture into the interior of the housing for withdrawal with the tilt pad as a discrete sub-assembly.

Tilt pad journal bearing assembly with self-contained hydrostatic lift

A collector terminal and hydrogen seal assembly for insertion within a radial hole in a generator rotor and connectable to a conductor bar located within an axial bore formed in the rotor, the seal assembly comprising a substantially cylindrical terminal stud portion having threaded upper and lower sections and a smooth intermediate section; insulation wrapped about the intermediate section; a spacer block located between the seal elements and defining an annular space surrounding the insulation; and a conduit in the terminal stud adapted to introduce compressed air from outside the generator rotor to the annular space for testing the integrity of the seal elements.

Generator rotor collector terminal stud hydrogen seal

Disclosed is a rotor body for an electric machine having slots for windings and slot keys with wedges for retaining the windings in the slots. The slot keys contain elongated spring strips underlying an amortisseur, in turn, underlying the wedges in the slot keys. The spring strips bias the amortisseur and wedges radially outwardly. Thus, the wedges lie in sufficient, low-resistance, efficient electrical contact with the rotor body at start-up and during low rotor speeds to prevent arcing and localized heating along the interfaces of the rotor parts otherwise resultant from induced surface currents at start-up and low rotor speeds. At the rotor ends, the spring strips bias the amortisseur ends radially outwardly into efficient electrical contact with retaining rings at opposite ends of the rotor body. A tool is also provided having a main arm, a pair of pivotally mounted dogs for engagement in the slot key and straddling the external surface of the slot key, respectively, whereby the tool may be fixed in axial position along the slot key by pressure on the main arm. A second pivotal arm carries a wedge-engaging head whereby the lever is fixed in the slot and the second arm drives the wedge longitudinally into axial position in the slot key.

Apparatus affording efficient electrical contact between rotor surface

A tool for applying slot wedges having a main arm, a pair of pivotally mounted dogs for engagement in the slot key and straddling the external surface of the slot key, respectively, whereby the tool may be fixed in axial position along the slot key by pressure on the main arm. A second pivotal arm carries a wedge-engaging head whereby the lever is fixed in the slot and the second arm drives the wedge longitudinally into axial position in the slot key.

Tool for applying slot wedges

A method and apparatus for the assembly and disassembly of dovetail shaped wedges into and from the coil slots of dynamoelectric rotors using a fixture attached to a rotor shaft coupling in a selectable radial position so as to be aligned with a rotor slot. The method and apparatus further uses a pulling tool attached to a wedge and also connected to a winch located on the fixture via a winch belt extending between the tool and fixture.

Generator rotor slot wedge assembly and disassembly fixture

Generator rotor slot wedge tool

Generator rotor slot wedge assembly and disassembly

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Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

Richard J Keck