Low profile vane retention
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsBruce Fielding, Nathan Tomes, Thomas Veitch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gas turbine having an annular casing with a series of circumferentially spaced openings defined therethrough; a plurality of vanes extending radially inwardly though respective casing openings, an outer end of the vanes projecting radially outwardly from the casing through the respective openings and located within the respective openings by grommets, and an inner end of the vanes being mounted to an inner portion of the casing; a flexible, segmented strap extending around the annular casing, surrounding the projecting outer ends of the vanes; and a spring radially loading the flexible strap configured to apply a tension force to the flexible strap.
Claims15
A gas turbine engine having an annular casing with a series of circumferentially spaced openings defined therethrough;
- a plurality of vanes extending radially inwardly through respective casing openings, an outer end of the vanes projecting radially outwardly from the casing through the respective openings and located within the respective openings by grommets, and an inner end of the vanes being mounted to an inner portion of the casing;
- a flexible, segmented strap extending around the annular casing surrounding the projecting outer ends of the vanes;
- and a spring strip surrounding the plurality of vanes and positioned radially between the flexible strap and the vanes to press radially against the respective flexible strap and vanes wherein the segmented flexible strap is in the form of a plurality of segments joined end to end by clasps, and wherein the clasps each have a web portion and a securing means near each end of the web to engage a respective segment end wherein the segment end is provided with mating means to be engaged by the securing means of the clasp.
A gas turbine engine having an annular casing with a series of circumferentially spaced openings defined therethrough;
- a plurality of vanes extending radially inwardly through respective casing openings, an outer end of the vanes projecting radially outwardly from the casing through the respective openings and located within the respective openings by grommets, and an inner end of the vanes being mounted to an inner portion of the casing;
- a flexible strap extending around the annular casing surrounding the projecting outer ends of the vanes;
- the improvement comprising a spring strip surrounding the plurality of vanes and positioned radially between the flexible strap and the vanes, the spring strip including an elongated web in the form of a circumferential ring and a plurality of laterally extending spring fingers projecting over the web in an alternating and crossing fashion from either edge of the web to press radially against the respective flexible strap and vanes.
A vane retention apparatus for retaining an array of radially extending stator vanes arranged and protruding from an annular casing in a gas turbine engine;
- comprising a flexible, segmented strap extending around the annular casing surrounding the vanes;
- and a spring strip surrounding the plurality of stator vanes and positioned radially between the flexible strap and the stator vanes to press against the respective flexible strap and stator vanes wherein the flexible strap is in the form of a plurality of segments joined end to end by clasps, and wherein each segment has a laterally extending bead at each end thereof with a reverse hook formed therein for receiving one of the clasps and each bead has an eyelet extending axially thereof.
A vane retention apparatus for retaining an array of radially extending stator vanes arranged and protruding from an annular casing in a gas turbine engine;
- comprising a flexible strap extending around the annular casing surrounding the vanes;
- the improvement comprising a spring strip surrounding the stator vanes and positioned radially between the flexible strap and the stator vanes, the spring strip including an elongated web in the form of a circumferential ring and a plurality of laterally extending spring fingers projecting over the web in an alternating and crossing fashion from either edge of the web to press radially against the respective flexible strap and stator vanes.
A method of retaining vanes in a gas turbine engine case, the case having a plurality of slots circumferentially distributed therearound, the vanes extending radially through each slot such that an end of the vane projects outwardly from the slot, the method comprising steps of placing a circumferentially continuous spring strip to surround the vane ends;
- placing a flexible strap made of a plurality of strap segments around the spring strip;
- and joining the ends of the strap segments by using respective clasps having a web portion and securing means near ends of the web portion to engage with mating means provided on the respective ends of the strap segments, to provide a continuous strap wrapped around the circumferentially continuous spring strip such that the spring strip presses radially outwardly against the flexible strap and radially inwardly against the respective vanes in position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.