General Electric Company

William Henry Harrison

Thomas Joseph Kelly

Michael James Weimer

Gary Edward Trewiler

Alessandro Lourenco Leitäo

Claudio J Heinen

Daryl Peacock

In one embodiment of the invention, a method of removing a key ring stud assembly comprising a key ring portion and a stud, from a threaded aperture of a gas turbine engine component is disclosed. The method comprises forming a tack weld on the key ring portion of the key ring stud assembly. The method also comprises welding an extractor to the tack weld; attaching a puller to the extractor welded to the tack weld; and removing the key ring portion by pulling on the puller, wherein the stud remains in the threaded aperture. The method further comprises assembling two nuts to the stud. Advantageously, the stud may be removed using a wrench or other suitable tool without damaging the threaded aperture of the gas turbine engine component.

Method of removing studs

A process for repairing a compressor rear frame of a gas turbine engine. The process entails removing a seal flange from the inner casing wall of the frame to define an annular face on the casing wall, and fabricating a replacement flange to have an annular face with a radial width greater than the radial width of the annular face of the casing wall. The faces of the flange and wall are mated to form a joint, a penetration-enhancing flux is deposited adjacent the joint, and a single-pass gas tungsten arc welding operation is performed to form a root weldment that extends completely through the joint. The flux is then removed and a gas tungsten arc welding operation is performed to deposit a filler on the root weldment and form a second weldment that completely overlays but does not penetrate through the root weldment.

Welding process

A heat treatment process that will restore the mechanical properties of an aircraft engine article that includes a cast nickel-based superalloy portion welded to a wrought portion. The heat treatment process includes placing an article that includes the nickel-based superalloy cast portion into a heat treatment chamber, evacuating the chamber to a suitable atmosphere, heating the chamber in a manner that minimizes distortion of the cast portion to a temperature in the range of 1950&deg; F. to 2050&deg; F., holding the temperature in that range for a period of time sufficient to solution all the delta phase precipitates, and then cooling the article to room temperature in a manner that minimizes distortion of the article. After solution heat treatment, the wrought portion of the engine part can be removed and replaced and the engine article can be reprocessed.

Growing community of inventors

Cleves, OH, United States of America

William Henry Harrison