Additively manufactured gearbox with integral heat exchanger
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsGert Johannes van der Merwe, Raymond Floyd Martell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gearbox and a method for additively manufacturing the gearbox are provided. The gearbox includes a housing having an integral heat exchanger additively manufactured within the housing. The heat exchanger includes a plurality of heat exchange passageways for transferring heat between two or more fluids. The heat exchanger is defined at any suitable location or locations within the housing, for example, within voids defined between the walls of the housing and components housed within housing, such as driveshafts, gears, bearings, etc.
Claims20
A gearbox comprising:
- a housing comprising a plurality of walls defining an internal chamber;
- and
- an additively manufactured heat exchanger formed within the chamber on at least one of the plurality of walls, the heat exchanger comprising a plurality of heat exchange passageways.
The gearbox of claim 6, wherein the fluid supply is located outside of the housing of the gearbox.
A method of forming a gearbox, the method comprising:
- additively manufacturing a heat exchanger onto at least one wall of a gearbox housing, the heat exchanger comprising a plurality of heat exchange passageways.
An additively manufactured gearbox comprising:
- a plurality of chamber walls defining a chamber;
- one or more gears positioned within the chamber, a plurality of voids being defined between the gears and the chamber walls;
- and
- at least one heat exchanger additively manufactured on the chamber walls to fill at least some of the plurality of voids, the heat exchanger comprising a plurality of heat exchanging walls, at least one of the heat exchanging walls having a thickness of less than four millimeters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.