Interchangeable gears for damper assemblies

Abstract

A damper assembly gear system for interchangeably carrying either airfoil damper blades or single-ply damper blades. A first embodiment, in which the damper blades rotate in opposition to one another, includes a group of gear bodies, each of which includes a tab structure, including both airfoil tabs and single-ply tabs, for mounting both types of damper blades. The airfoil tabs are shaped to match an airfoil damper and are spaced apart such that an airfoil damper can be inserted between and gripped by the airfoil tabs. Single-ply tabs are located between the airfoil tabs, shaped to match a single-ply damper and spaced apart such that a single-ply damper can be inserted between the single-ply tabs and gripped thereby. An alternative embodiment allows the system to be used in conjunction with both opposed and parallel damper assemblies. First, this embodiment includes two types of gears, blade gears and idler gears. Blade gears of identical in form and function to those discussed above, except that they include a gear shroud extending from the face of said gear body radially outward to cover said teeth. Idler gears lack the blade mounting structure and are disposed between blade gears and transmit rotational forces such that blade gears rotate in the same direction. Also, the idler gear teeth are offset in thickness by a distance equal to the thickness of the shroud, so that the shroud effectively retains the idler gear in position.