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US 12,729,627 B2Granted
Polymeric foams for hollow cavities
AssigneeRtx Corporation
InventorsKerry Lynn Davis-Amendola, John Harner, David J. Mathiau, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hollow fan blade comprises a sheath, an airfoil and a cover. The sheath forms a pressure side wall and has an exterior surface. The airfoil forms a suction side wall and has an exterior surface. There are a plurality of ribs extending between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall, where the plurality of ribs partition the hollow airfoil into one or more cavities. The cover is disposed in the one or more cavities to protect the plurality of ribs. The cavities are filled with a polymeric foam.
Claims15
A hollow fan blade comprising:
- a sheath, wherein the sheath forms a pressure side wall having an exterior surface;
- an airfoil, wherein the airfoil forms a suction side wall having an exterior surface;
- a plurality of ribs within the airfoil extending between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall, where the plurality of ribs partition an interior of the airfoil into one or more cavities;
- a cover disposed in the cavities to protect the plurality of ribs;
- and
- a syntactic polymeric foam disposed in the cavities and bonded to the cover, the syntactic polymeric foam including a thermally expandable microsphere and formed by expanding an organic polymer-blowing agent combination in the cavity, the organic polymer-blowing agent combination comprising a thermoplastic organic polymer and the thermally expandable microsphere, wherein expanding the organic polymer-blowing agent combination includes expanding the thermally expandable microsphere.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- disposing an organic polymer-blowing agent combination in a cavity of a hollow fan blade, the hollow fan blade comprising an airfoil, a sheath and a cover, where the airfoil and the sheath contact each other and where the airfoil comprises a plurality of ribs that define the cavity, and wherein the cover protects the plurality of ribs, the organic polymer-blowing agent combination including an organic polymer and a thermally expandable microsphere;
- and
- expanding an organic polymer-blowing agent combination to form a polymeric foam, the polymeric foam comprising a syntactic foam that bonds to the cover, wherein the organic polymer-blowing agent combination includes a thermoplastic organic polymer and a thermally expandable microsphere, wherein expanding the organic polymer-blowing agent combination includes expanding the thermally expandable microsphere.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.