Aircraft Engine Servicing Tube with Rotor-Blade Latching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for servicing aircraft engines, particularly for inspecting and repairing internal components, are cumbersome and inefficient, often requiring complicated tools and procedures, and lack flexibility in adapting to different engine types and configurations.
Innovation Solution
A flexible hollow tube with a latching mechanism at its distal end is used to secure onto rotor blades, allowing a servicing device to be inserted and moved within the engine, decoupled from the latching mechanism, enabling easy inspection and repair operations with interchangeable tools like borescopes or drills, and accommodating various engine types through an adapter for guiding the tube.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional servicing methods are used for aircraft engine inspection and repair, then servicing operations can be performed, but the procedures are cumbersome and inefficient with complicated tools required
Solution Approach 1:
The servicing system is segmented into modular components: a flexible hollow tube that can be inserted through engine ports, a latching mechanism at the distal end for securing to rotor blades, and interchangeable servicing devices (borescopes, drills, etc.) that pass through the tube. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall servicing procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible hollow tube serves as an intermediary device that mediates between the external servicing tools and the internal engine components. It provides a protected passage for servicing devices to reach rotating components through engine ports, eliminating the need for complicated direct access methods.
2Adaptability or versatility
If fixed servicing tools are used, then specific repair operations can be performed, but flexibility in adapting to different engine types and configurations is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible hollow tube with latching mechanism serves as a universal platform that can be adapted to different engine types. The latching mechanism can secure to various rotor blade configurations, and different servicing devices can be inserted through the same tube, making the system versatile across multiple engine configurations without requiring engine-specific tooling.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates dynamic adaptability through the flexible nature of the hollow tube and the rotatable latching mechanism that can engage with rotor blades at different positions. The servicing devices can be freely moved and repositioned within the tube during engine rotation, allowing adaptation to different engine types and configurations without rigid fixed installations.
3Ease of operation
If servicing devices are fixed to the insertion tool, then stable positioning is achieved, but ease of operation and tool interchangeability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The servicing device is extracted from the insertion tool, creating a decoupled system where the flexible hollow tube with latching mechanism remains in place while the servicing device can be freely inserted, moved, and removed. This extraction allows different servicing devices to be interchangeably used with the same tube, improving ease of operation and tool versatility while maintaining stable positioning through the tube's latching mechanism.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus for servicing internal components of an aircraft engine (109) includes a flexible hollow tube (102); a latching mechanism (106) connected to or incorporated with the flexible hollow tube (102); and a servicing device (104) to be inserted through the flexible hollow tube (102). The servicing device (104) is freely moveable through the flexible hollow tube (102) and decoupled from the latching mechanism (106). The flexible hollow tube (102) is shaped and configured so as to enable proximate positioning of the flexible hollow tube (102) with respect to a rotating component of an aircraft engine (109) allowing attachment of the flexible hollow tube (102) to the rotating component via the latching mechanism (106) after the flexible hollow tube (102) is inserted through an entry port of the aircraft engine (109).