The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 25, 1983
Filed:
Apr. 12, 1982
Thomas Derkacs, Mayfield, OH (US);
Charles W Fetheroff, Willowick, OH (US);
Istvan M Matay, North Royalton, OH (US);
Istvan J Toth, Richmond Heights, OH (US);
TRW Inc., Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
Although the method and apparatus of the present invention can be utilized to apply either a uniform or a nonuniform covering of material over many different workpieces, the apparatus (20) is advantageously utilized to apply a thermal barrier covering (64) to an airfoil (22) which is used in a turbine engine. The airfoil is held by a gripper assembly (86) while a spray gun (24) is effective to apply the covering over the airfoil. When a portion of the covering has been applied, a sensor (28) is utilized to detect the thickness of the covering. A control apparatus (32) compares the thickness of the covering of material which has been applied with the desired thickness and is subsequently effective to regulate the operation of the spray gun to adaptively apply a covering of a desired thickness with an accuracy of at least plus or minus 0.0015 of an inch (1.5 mils) despite unanticipated process variations.