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US 10,294,813 B2Granted
Geared unison ring for variable vane actuation
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorsAnthony R Bifulco, Gabriel L Suciu, Jesse M Chandler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A variable vane system includes a harmonic drive driven by an actuator, and a drive gear driven by the harmonic drive. A geared unison ring includes an actuator gear rack driven by the drive gear and a multiple of vane gears, each of the multiple of vane gears mounted to one of a multiple of variable vanes, the multiple of vane gears driven by a gear rack of the geared unison ring.
Claims23
A variable vane system, comprising:
- an actuator;
- a harmonic drive driven by the actuator;
- a drive gear driven by the harmonic drive;
- a geared unison ring comprising an actuator gear rack driven by the drive gear;
- and a multiple of vane gears, each of the multiple of vane gears mounted to one of a multiple of variable vanes, the multiple of vane gears driven by a gear rack of the geared unison ring, wherein the geared unison ring spans a first variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes and a second variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes.
2 more elements
A gas turbine engine, comprising:
- an engine case;
- a multiple of variable vanes at least partially within the engine case;
- and a harmonic drive operable to drive a variable vane system through a geared unison ring that surrounds said engine case, each of a multiple of vane gears mounted to one of the multiple of variable vanes, each of the multiple of vane gears driven by a gear rack of the geared unison ring, the geared unison ring driven by an actuator gear rack that extends from the geared unison ring, wherein the geared unison ring spans a first variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes and a second variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes.
A gas turbine engine, comprising:
- an engine case;
- a multiple of variable vanes;
- a multiple of vane gears, each of the multiple of vane gears mounted to one of a multiple of variable vanes;
- a geared unison ring that surrounds said engine case, the multiple of vane gears driven by the geared unison ring;
- and an actuator gear rack that extends from the geared unison ring to drive the geared unison ring, wherein the geared unison ring spans a first variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes and a second variable vane stage of the multiple of variable vanes.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.