General Electric Company

Shivakumar Basavanna

Ravindra Shankar Ganiger

Andrew Crispin Graham

Don Mark Lipkin

Deepak Trivedi

Sandeep Kumar

Mark Leonard Hopper

Vamshi Krishna Reddy Kommareddy

Rebinth Jose Robin

Naleen Kumar Verma

Mandar Diwakar Godbole

Daniel Drew Smith

Jacob Patrick Miller

Satya Mohan Vamsi Andalam

Charles Andrew Corman

Arun Ramachandra

Benjamin James Schumacher

A method of servicing a portion of a gas turbine engine includes inserting a rigid guide tube into an inspection port in a shroud of the gas turbine engine. The flexible guide tube is inserted into and through the rigid guide tube. The flexible guide tube is pre-shaped such that the flexible guide tube is biased towards a predetermined shape after being inserted through the rigid guide tube. A tool is pushed through the flexible guide tube such that the distal end of the tool moves out of and away from an end of the flexible guide tube. An area of interest of the gas turbine engine is then serviced with the tool.

Multi-tube servicing tool and method of servicing gas turbine engine components

A feed-through assembly for a bulkhead for moving and static engine components. The feed-through assembly can be configured to include flexible convolutions that allow for movement and sealing of the engine component relative to the bulkhead. In one aspect, a flexible convoluted spherical element can be provided in the feed-through assembly. In another aspect, a flexible convoluted bellow element can be provided in the feed-through assembly. These flexible convoluted elements can have multiple convolution sections including convolution sections with varying stiffness. The convolution sections can be configured to allow movement of the shaft relative to the bulkhead, including, transverse deflection and tilt.

Feed-through assembly

A system for use in servicing a turbomachine, the system including a first tubular body including an interior channel, and a second tubular body. The first and second tubular bodies are bendable between a neutral shape and a biased shape. The bodies are bent when in the neutral shape. The second tubular body includes a tip end, and the second tubular body is translatable within the interior channel. The first tubular body and the second tubular body are rotatable to selectively orient the tip end in multiple degrees of freedom. The system also includes a steering cable extending from the tip end, wherein the steering cable biases the tip end for selective orientation in additional degrees of freedom.

Systems and method of servicing a turbomachine

A housing for retention of the outer race of a bearing of a gas turbine engine includes an arrangement of spring fingers that yields a lightweight housing capable of withstanding very high radial loads combined with very high torsional windup and axial thrust load. Controlled circumferential gaps on both sides of each spring finger limit the deflection and self-arrest the distortion of the housing. The spring fingers define at least one side edge that extends at an angle relative to the axial direction. An axial gap is created on the aft end by a portion of the spring finger beam structure that opposes an axial face of the housing and limits the axial distortion. A radial gap created between interface hardware of the housing and the inner retention housing also acts to retain the spring finger housing under load in a radial direction.

Bearing outer race retention during high load events

Growing community of inventors

Mullur, India

Shivakumar Basavanna