Force Control Industries, Inc.

General Electric Company

Stephen L Carmichael

Jerry L Yater

Daniel Edward Mollmann

Mark Edward Stegemiller

Kenneth O Johnson

Michael P Swift

Pamela M Boehm

Eugene F Gaffney

A flexible adaptor mounts an aircraft gas turbine engine to a test stand. The adaptor includes an upper frame configured for mounting on the test stand, and a lower frame spaced from the upper frame and configured for supporting the engine. A spring flexibly joins the lower frame to the upper frame to simulate the flexibility of an aircraft wing which supports the engine during operation.

Engine testing mounting adaptor

A housing encloses a supply of oil and has opposite end portions supporting axially aligned input and output shafts. Interfitting annular clutch plates and discs provide for connecting the input shaft to the output shaft, and interfitting annular brake plates and discs provide for braking the output shaft to the housing in response to axial movement of a non-rotating oil actuated piston supported within the housing concentrically with the output shaft. Oil recirculating structure is provided within the housing for cooling and lubricating the plates and discs, and a positive displacement high pressure annular pump forms an extension of the housing around the inlet shaft. The pump has inner and outer thin flat rotors and pressurizes a portion of the oil within the housing sufficiently to actuate the piston through the control of a solenoid actuated valve unit mounted on the housing. Flat annular wear plates are spaced to confine the rotors and have arcuate passages adjacent the teeth on the rotors.

Clutch/brake unit with self-contained actuating pump system

A housing encloses a supply of oil and has opposite end portions supporting axially aligned input and output shafts. Interfitting annular clutch plates and discs provide for connecting the input shaft to the output shaft, and interfitting annular brake plates and discs provide for braking the output shaft to the housing in response to axial movement of a non-rotating oil actuated piston supported within the housing concentrically with the output shaft. Oil recirculating passages are provided within the housing for cooling and lubricating the plates and discs, and a positive displacement high pressure annular pump forms an extension of the housing around the inlet shaft. The pump has inner and outer thin flat rotors and pressurizes a portion of the oil within the housing sufficiently to actuate the piston through the control of a solenoid actuated valve unit mounted on the housing.

Growing community of inventors

Hamilton, OH, United States of America

Stephen L Carmichael