Patent Application
20200017987
Not applicable.
The present invention relates in general to the field of rotorcraft, and more particularly to methods and systems for preventing wear and/or corrosion to rotorcraft systems.
Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with rotorcraft drive systems.
Since their inception, rotorcraft and rotorcraft drive systems have been improved to reduce the possibility of failure during flight. Toward that end, a number of modifications have been made to drive systems to improve reliability. However, despite advances in materials and design, a number of failures continue to occur that affect rotorcraft performance. One example of a problem with current rotorcraft drive systems is that, in some instances, the failure of single drive system component leads to failure of the entire drive system.
Thus, a need remains for improving the overall safety and reliability of rotorcraft drive systems that include the connections between the engines and the main rotor gearbox, reduction and accessory gearboxes, shafts, generators, oil pumps, and accessories connected to the main rotor gearbox.
Existing methods and apparatuses for protecting components subject to abrasion and/or corrosion in operation such as a main rotor mast, a tail rotor mast, and gears can be improved on to lengthen their operational lives and to reduce the frequency with which the components must be inspected and replaced. If a gear driving element abrades, for example, its functionality can be reduced to the point of failure, so such parts must be inspected relatively frequently and replaced when necessary to prevent such failures. Methods and apparatuses for better protecting components from abrasion and/or corrosion are desirable.
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a rotorcraft component protected from abrasion or corrosion, comprising: the rotorcraft component; and a zinc-nickel coating on at least a portion of a surface of the rotorcraft component, wherein the zinc-nickel coating protects the portion of the surface of the rotorcraft component from abrasion or corrosion. In one aspect, the zinc-nickel coating has a high nickel content, wherein a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 12 to 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 15 to 18%. In another aspect, a zinc content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 3 to 8%. In another aspect, the rotorcraft component is a main rotor mast, a tail rotor mast, a gear, a main rotor gearbox, or one or more gears in an accessory gearbox, a reduction gearbox, an intermediate gearbox, or a tail rotor gearbox.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a method of protecting a rotorcraft component from abrasion or corrosion, comprising: providing the rotorcraft component; and coating at least a portion of a surface of the rotorcraft component with a zinc-nickel coating. In one aspect, the zinc-nickel coating has a high nickel content, wherein a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 12 to 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 15 to 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 18%. In another aspect, a zinc content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 3 to 8%. In another aspect, the rotorcraft component is a main rotor mast, a tail rotor mast, a gear, a main rotor gearbox, or one or more gears in an accessory gearbox, a reduction gearbox, an intermediate gearbox, or a tail rotor gearbox.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a rotorcraft, comprising: a fuselage; one or more engines coupled to the fuselage; and a component coupled to the one or more engines, comprising a zinc-nickel coating on at least a portion of a surface of the component, wherein the zinc-nickel coating protects the portion of the surface of the component from abrasion or corrosion. In one aspect, the zinc-nickel coating has a high nickel content, wherein a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 12 to 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 18%. In another aspect, a nickel content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 15 to 18%. In another aspect, a zinc content of the zinc-nickel coating is about 3-8%. In another aspect, the component is a main rotor mast, a tail rotor mast, a gear, a main rotor gearbox, or one or more gears in an accessory gearbox, a reduction gearbox, an intermediate gearbox, or a tail rotor gearbox.
In addition to the foregoing, various other method, system, and apparatus aspects are set forth in the teachings of the present disclosure, such as the claims, text, and drawings forming a part of the present disclosure.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail. Consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that this summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. There aspects, features, and advantages of the devices, processes, and other subject matter described herein will be become apparent in the teachings set forth herein.
For a more complete understanding of the features and advantages of the present invention, reference is now made to the detailed description of the invention along with the accompanying figures, in which:
Illustrative embodiments of the system of the present application are described below. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
In the specification, reference may be made to the spatial relationships between various components and to the spatial orientation of various aspects of components as the devices are depicted in the attached drawings. However, as will be recognized by those skilled in the art after a complete reading of the present application, the devices, members, apparatuses, etc. described herein may be positioned in any desired orientation. Thus, the use of terms such as “above,” “below,” “upper,” “lower,” or other like terms to describe a spatial relationship between various components or to describe the spatial orientation of aspects of such components should be understood to describe a relative relationship between the components or a spatial orientation of aspects of such components, respectively, as the device described herein may be oriented in any desired direction.
The present invention addresses the problems with drive systems in use today that are known to lead to rotorcraft failure. More particularly, the drive system of the present invention was designed to overcome drive system failures wear, abrasion, and/or corrosion. The present invention is of particular use to reduce maintenance of the main and tail rotor masts as well as gears that are part of the drive train by reducing the wear and/or corrosion on those components. More particularly, the new rotorcraft drive system is focused in an unparalleled manner on safety and redundancy. The goal of safety drove the design and development of the unique layout, materials, and configuration of the rotorcraft drive system described herein, which incorporates unique features and system separation that protects primary aircraft systems from the most common drive system failures.
For this reason, the present invention includes a powertrain for a rotorcraft that includes coatings that reduce the wear and/or corrosion on gears and are more wear resistant than the cadmium coatings used in the art. One such coating includes a high nickel content. As used herein, the term “high nickel content” in the present invention includes a range of about 12 to 18, 15 to 18, 15 or 18 weight percent (wt %) nickel.
For example,
Examples of high-nickel content zinc-nickel coatings include those produced by processes such as those developed by Dipsol Chemicals Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. One such process is IZ-250Y, which is an alkaline type, cyanide free, zinc nickel alloy electroplating process for use with, e.g., a rack plating bath. The deposit obtained by the IZ-250Y process is a uniform zinc alloy containing approximately 12 to 18% nickel (http://en.dipsol-jp.com/product/iz-250y#). Another process, IZ-252Y, is an alkaline type, cyanide free, zinc-nickel alloy electroplating process for, e.g., a barrel plating bath. The deposit obtained by the process IZ-252Y process also includes a uniform zinc-alloy containing approximately 12 to 18% nickel (http://en.dipsol-jp.com/product/iz-252y#). Each such process is incorporated herein by reference.
The skilled artisan will recognize that zinc-nickel coating 310 and method 600 protect rotorcraft components such as main rotor mast 112, tail rotor mast 405, and gears 505a, 505b, 505c, 505d and 505e from abrasion or corrosion.
It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All publications and patent applications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps. In embodiments of any of the compositions and methods provided herein, “comprising” may be replaced with “consisting essentially of” or “consisting of.” As used herein, the phrase “consisting essentially of” requires the specified integer(s) or steps as well as those that do not materially affect the character or function of the claimed invention. As used herein, the term “consisting” is used to indicate the presence of the recited integer (e.g., a feature, an element, a characteristic, a property, a method/process step, or a limitation) or group of integers (e.g., feature(s), element(s), characteristic(s), property(ies), method/process(s) steps, or limitation(s)) only.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
As used herein, words of approximation such as, without limitation, “about,” “substantial” or “substantially” refers to a condition that when so modified is understood to not necessarily be absolute or perfect but would be considered close enough to those of ordinary skill in the art to warrant designating the condition as being present. The extent to which the description may vary will depend on how great a change can be instituted and still have one of ordinary skill in the art recognize the modified feature as still having the required characteristics and capabilities of the unmodified feature. In general, but subject to the preceding discussion, a numerical value herein that is modified by a word of approximation such as “about” may vary from the stated value by at least ±1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12 or 15%.
All of the devices and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the devices and/or methods of this invention have been described in terms of particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope, and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the disclosure. Accordingly, the protection sought herein is as set forth in the claims below.
Modifications, additions, or omissions may be made to the systems and apparatuses described herein without departing from the scope of the invention. The components of the systems and apparatuses may be integrated or separated. Moreover, the operations of the systems and apparatuses may be performed by more, fewer, or other components. The methods may include more, fewer, or other steps. Additionally, steps may be performed in any suitable order.
To aid the Patent Office, and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims to invoke paragraph 6 of 35 U.S.C. § 112 as it exists on the date of filing hereof unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
This patent application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/696,402 filed on Jul. 11, 2018 entitled “Mast and Exposed Gears are Zinc-High-Nickel Plated for Greater Abrasion and/or Corrosion Resistance” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This patent application is related to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/399,067 filed on Sep. 23, 2016 entitled “Improved Helicopter Transmission System”, U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/423,371 filed on Nov. 17, 2016 entitled “Improved Helicopter Transmission System,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/709,502 filed on Sep. 20, 2017 entitled “Fan Mounted on Gearshaft”, all of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62696402 | Jul 2018 | US |
