Patent Application
20180354093
The present disclosure relates to a tool for stabilizing a position of a shaft. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a tool for stabilizing a position of a shaft during transportation of a machine in which the shaft is rotatably supported.
Many machines are known to include a shaft for rotatively transmitting power from one component to another. For example, turbomachines such as gas turbine engines may include a turbine and a shaft for rotating the turbine. In many cases, these machines may need to be transported from one location to another. In such cases, the shaft, which would be typically supported on a pair of bearings within a housing of the machine, could be displaced from its initial position that is established during assembly of the machine. Such displacement of the shaft from its initial position during transportation of the machine could cause unintended forces to be radially applied to the bearings that support the shaft.
These forces may cause wear in the bearings. For example, an inner race or an outer race of the bearing could be subject to false brinelling with displacement of the shaft. Subsequently, a performance and service life of the bearings could deteriorate, in operation, if the shaft moves from its initial position. U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,263 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the '263 patent’) discloses that the rotatable shaft of a large machine could be blocked using a plurality of preloaded springs. These preloaded springs may be held by a collar member that is secured to the housing of the machine for preventing a roller bearing that supports the non-drive end of the shaft from being damaged during shipment of the machine.
As disclosed in the '263 patent, each of the springs is positioned in direct contact with the shaft. As each spring may offer little resistance to movement of the shaft from its initial position, many springs would need to be used to stabilize a position of the shaft, thus, requiring the collar member to support such springs while the collar member is annularly disposed about the shaft. This makes the collar member of the '263 patent bulky in construction. Therefore, the collar member may occupy a large amount of space that may not always be available in machines owing to various space constraints.
Hence, there is a need for a tool that is simple, compact and offers ease in use to provide adequate amount of resistance to the shaft in movement during transportation of the machine.
In an aspect of the present disclosure, a tool is provided for stabilizing a position of a shaft that could be disposed within a casing and rotatably supported by a pair of bearings. The bearings may be spaced-apart from one another within the casing. The tool includes an arcuately-shaped shoe that is located between the pair of bearings and releasably connected to the casing. The shoe has a concave surface defining a radius corresponding to a radius of the shaft. The shoe is resiliently biased away from the casing for facilitating the concave surface of the shoe to radially abut with a portion of an outer circumference of the shaft.
In another aspect of the present disclosure, a tool is provided for stabilizing a position of a shaft disposed within a casing and rotatably supported by a pair of bearings that are spaced-apart from one another and located within the casing. The tool includes a first plate, and a second plate that is spaced apart from and disposed parallel to the first plate.
The tool also includes a pair of primary fasteners slidably engaged with the first plate and extending through the first plate. The first plate defines a pair of holes to facilitate insertion of the pair of primary fasteners therethrough. An end of each primary fastener is adapted to threadably engage with the second plate. A pair of resilient members located between the first and second plates are disposed about the pair of primary fasteners.
Further, a stub extends from a side of the second plate disposed away from the first plate. An arcuately-shaped shoe is disposed at a free end of the stub and located away from the second plate. The shoe has a concave surface that defines a radius corresponding to a radius of the shaft so that the concave surface is adapted to abut with a portion of an outer circumference of the shaft. Furthermore, a pair of secondary fasteners releasably secures the first plate to the casing such that when the first plate is secured to the casing, a reaction force from the pair of resilient members resiliently biases the shoe radially against the outer circumference of the shaft. Additionally or optionally, the concave surface of the shoe could be affixed with a flexible material for abutting with the portion of the outer circumference of the shaft.
In an aspect of this disclosure, the pair of resilient members that are used to provide the reaction force to the shoe could include compression springs. As such, ends of the pair of resilient members are seated against the first and second plates such that the pair of resilient members undergo compression when the pair of secondary fasteners are fastened against the first plate for securing the first plate to the casing.
In an aspect of the present disclosure, the pair of primary fasteners include bolts. Each bolt has a head that is disposed about an axis and is configured to seat against the first plate. A shank extends from the head and is disposed about the axis. An end of each bolt includes a stepped portion that is adapted to threadably engage with the second plate. Correspondingly, the second plate includes a pair of threaded receptacles that are configured to facilitate the threadable engagement of the pair of primary fasteners with the second plate.
In another aspect of the present disclosure, each secondary fastener includes a grub screw threadably engaged with a threaded receptacle defined on the first plate, and a threaded nut that is adapted to seat against the first plate. The nut secures the first plate to the casing when the nut is fastened to the grub screw.
In yet another aspect of the present disclosure, embodiments disclosed herein are also directed to an engine having a casing, a shaft disposed within the casing and rotatably supported by a pair of bearings located within the casing, and employing the tool of the present disclosure to stabilize a position of the shaft within the casing in which the tool would be located between the pair of bearings. Such an engine may have an access door that is releasably connected to the casing to which the first plate may be releasably secured with the help of the secondary fasteners. The access door also defines a window that is configured to allow passage of the shoe therethrough.
Other features and aspects of this disclosure will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.
Reference numerals appearing in more than one figure indicate the same or corresponding parts in each of them. References to elements in the singular may also be construed to relate to the plural and vice-versa without limiting the scope of the disclosure to the exact number or type of such elements unless set forth explicitly in the appended claims.
The gas turbine engine 102 may include, amongst a host of other systems, an inlet system 104, a compression system 106, a combustion system 108, a turbine system 110, and an exhaust system 111. The inlet system 104 may be configured to allow entry of air into the gas turbine engine 102 for supply to the compression system 106. The compression system 106 could compress air and operatively provide the compressed air to various components of the combustion system 108 and the turbine system 110. The compression system 106 may include a single stage compressor, or a multistage compressor. As shown in
The combustion system 108 would be configured to combust a mixture of fuel and air to produce mechanical energy that is transferred via a shaft 112 for operatively driving the turbine system 110. The exhaust system 111 could allow products of combustion to be released from the gas turbine engine 102.
The gas turbine engine 102 may be assembled at a manufacturing facility and then transported from the manufacturing facility to another location for use. The shaft 112, on which components from at least the compression system 106 and the turbine system 110 are mounted, may be supported by a pair of bearings 114, 116 as exemplarily shown in
Each of these bearings 114, 116 is disposed about the shaft 112 and secured within a casing 118 of the gas turbine engine 102. Each of these bearings 114, 116 may include, for example, roller bearings, needle bearings, journal bearings or other types of bearings commonly known to persons skilled in the art. As shown in
Although three bearings 114, 115, and 116 are disclosed herein, it should be noted that a number of bearings used to rotatably support the shaft 112 disclosed herein is merely exemplary in nature and hence, non-limiting of this disclosure. Fewer or more bearings may be used depending on a configuration of the gas turbine engine 102 and other specific requirements of an application.
The present disclosure relates to a tool for stabilizing a position of the shaft 112 during transportation of the gas turbine engine 102 while the shaft 112 is positioned within the casing 118 and is rotatably supported by the bearings 114, 115, and 116. As shown in the illustrated embodiment of
Referring to
Referring to
With continued reference to
In an embodiment as shown in
Further, a stub 322 extends from a side 324 of the second plate 304 and is disposed away from the first plate 302. An arcuately-shaped shoe 326 is located at a free end 328 of the stub 322. The shoe 326 has a concave surface 330 that is disposed away from the second plate 304. The concave surface 330 of the shoe 326 defines a radius R1 corresponding to a radius R2 of the shaft 112 so that the concave surface 330 is adapted to abut with a portion of an outer circumference C of the shaft 112.
In the illustrated embodiment of
Furthermore, a pair of secondary fasteners 336 are provided to releasably secure the first plate 302 to the casing 118. In an embodiment as shown in
Moreover, a pair of resilient members 342 are located between the first and second plates 302, 304 and disposed about the pair of primary fasteners 306. In an embodiment as shown in
Referring to
In a further embodiment as shown in
The access door 352 disclosed herein would also define a window 354 that is configured to allow passage of the shoe 326 therethrough. The window 354 would be sized and shaped to correspond with a size and shape of the shoe 326 so as to allow passage of the shoe 326 through the window 354 during assembly or removal of the tool 300 from the gas turbine engine 102. It has been contemplated that another access door (not shown) similar to the access door 352 disclosed herein would be provided with the machine 100, in this case, the gas turbine engine 102. The other access door could be similar in size and shape to that of the access door 352 disclosed herein, however with the only exception that the other access door would not be configured to define a window, such as the window 354, therein. The other access door may be secured to the casing 118 upon removal of the tool 300 from the gas turbine engine 102 so that this other access door would close an opening (see
It may be noted that although embodiments of the present disclosure have been explained in conjunction with the gas turbine engine 102 disclosed herein, the gas turbine engine 102 is non-limiting of this disclosure. Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the tool 300 can be used on other types of machines having a shaft 112 included therein and in which the shaft of the machine requires resistance in movement from an initial position that is established during assembly of the machine so that such a machine can be transported from one location to another without causing any wear to bearings, for instance, bearings 114, 115, and 116 that are provided to support a rotation of the shaft 112, during operation of the machine.
In embodiments of this disclosure, it has been disclosed that the concave surface 330 of the shoe 326 is configured to define a radius R1 corresponding to a radius R2 of the shaft 112. However, in embodiments herein, it should also be noted that an angular width W of the shoe 326 as shown in
Various embodiments disclosed herein are to be taken in the illustrative and explanatory sense, and should in no way be construed as limiting of the present disclosure. All joinder references (e.g., attached, affixed, coupled, engaged, meshed, connected, and the like) are only used to aid the reader's understanding of the present disclosure, and may not create limitations, particularly as to the position, orientation, or use of the systems and/or methods disclosed herein. Therefore, joinder references, if any, are to be construed broadly. Moreover, such joinder references do not necessarily infer that two elements are directly connected to each other.
Additionally, all numerical terms, such as, but not limited to, “first”, “second”, or any other ordinary and/or numerical terms, should also be taken only as identifiers, to assist the reader's understanding of the various elements, embodiments, variations and/or modifications of the present disclosure, and may not create any limitations, particularly as to the order, or preference, of any element, embodiment, variation and/or modification relative to or over another element, embodiment, variation and/or modification.
It is to be understood that individual features shown or described for one embodiment may be combined with individual features shown or described for another embodiment. The above described implementation does not in any way limit the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, it is to be understood although some features are shown or described to illustrate the use of the present disclosure in the context of functional segments, such features may be omitted from the scope of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims.
Embodiments of the present disclosure have applicability for use and implementation in stabilizing a position of a shaft in a machine that is to be transported from one location to another. With use of the tool disclosed herein, manufacturers can ensure that little or no wear occurs to the bearings when the machine is being transported as the tool disclosed herein is configured to resist any movement in the shaft during transport.
Moreover, the tool of the present disclosure is simple and cost-effective to construct as compared to previously known designs of conventional stabilization systems or fixtures. Further, the tool disclosed herein is less-bulky in construction as compared to conventional stabilization systems or fixtures. Owing to the compact design and size of the tool disclosed herein, the tool of the present disclosure may allow manufacturers to stabilize a shaft in a machine where space constraints would otherwise not permit fitment of conventional stabilization systems or fixtures.
Also, the tool of the present disclosure is configured to mitigate various detrimental effects such as false brinelling that would otherwise occur to the bearings supporting a shaft of a given machine. Therefore, it will be appreciated that use of the tool disclosed herein can help manufacturers of machines to save time, costs, and effort that would be incurred towards repair and/or replacement of the bearings if the position of a shaft in a machine has not been stabilized before transportation of the machine.
While aspects of the present disclosure have been particularly shown and described with reference to the embodiments above, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various additional embodiments may be contemplated by the modification of the disclosed machines, systems, methods and processes without departing from the spirit and scope of what is disclosed. Such embodiments should be understood to fall within the scope of the present disclosure as determined based upon the claims and any equivalents thereof.
