Bonding system for dual walled turbine components
AssigneeROLLS-ROYCE plc
InventorsJoseph P. Henderkott, Timothy Fuesting, Raymond Xu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bonding system is used for bonding a cover sheet to a core to form or repair a dual wall structure. The bonding system includes a plurality of bonding probes and controller circuitry. The bonding probes include a three dimensional (3D) contoured tip configured to align with a predetermined area of a 3D contoured cover sheet of a dual wall structure. The controller circuitry comprises processor circuitry and sensor circuitry. The sensor circuitry provides a location of an area of the 3D contoured cover sheet for bonding. The processor circuitry identifies a bonding probe having a contacting area that aligns with the 3D contour of the cover sheet in the location provided by the sensor circuitry.
Claims19
A bonding system comprising:
- a plurality of bonding probes, each of the bonding probes including a tip having a three dimensional (3D) contoured contacting area, the 3D contoured contacting area of the tip configured to align with a predetermined area of a three dimensional (3D) contoured outer surface of a cover sheet of a dual wall structure;
- and
- controller circuitry configured to electrically couple with the bonding probes and control a bonding process to bond the cover sheet to a core of the dual wall structure,
- the controller circuitry comprising processor circuitry and sensor circuitry,
- the sensor circuitry providing a location of an area of the 3D contoured outer surface of the cover sheet for bonding;
- and
- the processor circuitry configured to identify a bonding probe, from among the plurality of bonding probes, having a respective contacting area that aligns with the area of the 3D contoured outer surface of the cover sheet in the location provided by the sensor circuitry.
A method of bonding dual wall structures comprising:
- receiving, with a processor circuitry, a location representing an area of a three dimensional (3D) contour of an outer surface of a cover sheet of a dual wall structure;
- choosing, with the processor circuitry, one of a plurality of bonding probes by:
- comparing a three dimensional (3D) contour surface area of a tip of at least some of the plurality of bonding probes to the area of the 3D contour of the outer surface of the cover sheet;
- selecting one of the plurality of bonding probes having a respective 3D contour surface of the tip that aligns with the 3D contour of the outer surface of the cover sheet;
- and
- controlling, with the processor circuitry, a resistance welding machine to output a voltage and current to the selected one of the plurality of bonding probes to bond an inner surface of the cover sheet to a pedestal extending away from a core of the dual wall structure, the pedestal contiguously contacting the inner surface of the cover sheet, the inner surface of the cover sheet opposite the location representing the area of the 3D contour of the outer surface of the cover sheet of the dual wall structure.
A bonding system comprising:
- sensor circuitry configured to provide a signal representing a location of an area of a three dimension (3D) contour of an outer surface of a cover sheet of a dual wall structure;
- and
- controller circuitry configured to receive the signal and identify a bonding probe from among a plurality of bonding probes with a tip having a three dimensional (3D) contour surface area that aligns with the 3D contour of the outer surface of the cover sheet at the location, each of the bonding probes having a respective tip with a different three dimensional (3D) contour surface area;
- the controller circuitry further configured to control a resistance welding machine to output a voltage and current to the selected one of the plurality of bonding probes to bond an inner surface of the cover sheet to a pedestal extending away from a core of the dual wall structure, the pedestal contiguously contacting the inner surface of the cover sheet, the inner surface of the cover sheet opposite the location representing the area of the 3D contour of the outer surface of the cover sheet of the dual wall structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.