General Electric Company

William Elliot Bachrach

Scott Roger Finn

Weiping Wang

Wendy Wen-Ling Lin

John J Fitzgerald

Ravindra Kumar Pandey

Charles Richard Evans

Walter D Howard

Robert Paul Tyler

Theodore R Ingling

John Michael Muldoon

Donald Fredrick Mowbray

Albert Benjamen Crogan

A caul is used in an autoclave process for consolidating a composite, multi-ply, gas turbine fan blade preform having first and second opposite sides and a varying thickness therebetween. The caul includes a body having fibers situated in a matrix. The caul is complementary in shape to the preform first side and has a bending flexibility varying over the body for correspondingly varying consolidation of the preform. The second side of the preform is shaped by a bottom mold in the autoclave chamber.

Selectively flexible caul and method of use

A steam turbine blade, such as those used in an electric power generation steam turbine, has an airfoil portion. The airfoil portion includes a metallic section consisting essentially of metal and at least one (lightweight) panel section not consisting essentially of metal. The metallic section extends from generally the blade root to generally the blade tip. Each panel section is an elastomeric section. The metallic section and the at-least-one panel section only together define a generally airfoil shape.

Poly-component blade for a steam turbine

A lightweight, impact-resistant gas turbine blade, such as an aircraft engine fan blade, includes a metallic airfoil portion with at least one surface recess containing a void volume having adjacent first and second regions. Filler material is placed in and bonded to the surface recess and generally completely fills the void volume. The filler material in the first region has a higher average modulus of elasticity than that of the filler material in the second region.

Gas turbine blade having areas of different densities

A lightweight, impact-resistant gas turbine blade, such as an aircraft engine fan blade, has an airfoil portion which includes a metal section and at least one foam section which together define a generally airfoil shape. The metal section extends from generally the blade root to generally the blade tip. A composite skin generally completely surrounds, and is bonded to, the metal section and the at-least-one foam section. Preferably, an erosion coating generally completely surrounds, and is bonded to, the composite skin.

Multi-component blade for a gas turbine

A lightweight, impact-resistant gas turbine blade, such as an aircraft engine fan blade, has a metal solid section, composite or structural/syntactic foam segments, and metal solid spars all attached together to define an airfoil portion. The solid section includes the leading edge, blade tip, and trailing edge. The segments together are bounded in part by the solid section near the leading edge, blade tip, and trailing edge. The solid spars separate and are attached to the segments.

Growing community of inventors

Bennington, VT, United States of America

William Elliot Bachrach