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US 11,143,111 B2Granted
Fan drive gear system mechanical controller
AssigneeRaytheon Technologies Corporation
InventorsJohn R. Otto, James B. Coffin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fan drive gear system for a turbofan engine includes a geared architecture and a gear controller supporting the geared architecture and controlling rotation of the geared architecture relative a static structure.
Claims16
A fan drive gear system for a turbofan engine comprising:
- a geared architecture including a controlled portion, the geared architecture includes a sun gear driven by an input shaft, a plurality of planet gears supported by a carrier and driven by the sun gear and a ring gear circumscribing the planet gears, wherein the controlled portion comprises one of the carrier or the ring gear;
- and
- a gear controller supporting the geared architecture and coupled to the controlled portion for controlling rotation of the controlled portion of the geared architecture relative to a static structure, the gear controller varies an effective speed reduction ratio of the geared architecture by controlling rotation of the controlled portion of the geared architecture between a static condition and a free condition relative to the static structure.
A method of assembling a fan drive gear system for turbofan engine comprising:
- coupling a fan to a geared architecture, the geared architecture includes a sun gear driven by an input shaft, a plurality of planet gears supported by a carrier and driven by the sun gear and a ring gear circumscribing the planet gears;
- and
- supporting a controlled portion of the geared architecture with a gear controller configured to control rotation of the controlled portion of geared architecture relative to an input structure, wherein the controlled portion is one of the carrier or the ring gear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.