Integrated Bearing Compartment Spring for Precise Assembly Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gas turbine engines face challenges with gaps and misalignment due to manufacturing tolerances, leading to stress variations and assembly difficulties in bearing compartments, which are compounded by traditional manufacturing techniques that limit design complexity.
Innovation Solution
A bearing compartment with a housing integrally formed with a spring, featuring axially extending struts and an internal lattice structure, is manufactured using additive manufacturing to enhance structural stability and alignment, allowing for complex geometries and precise component positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional casting and machining techniques are used to manufacture bearing compartment parts, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but design complexity is limited and assembly precision deteriorates due to gaps from tolerance stacking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple previously separate components (housing, spring, and support structures) into a single integrally formed bearing compartment assembly. This merging eliminates gaps between components that resulted from tolerance stacking in traditional multi-part assemblies, thereby improving assembly precision while the additive manufacturing process enables the necessary design complexity for such integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring component serves multiple functions: it provides damping between components, acts as a support structure during additive manufacturing build process, and enables complex geometries that improve overall assembly precision. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by making the component versatile enough to handle both precision requirements and design complexity demands.
2Ease of manufacture
If bearing compartments are assembled with multiple individually manufactured parts, then manufacturing flexibility is maintained, but gaps occur due to tolerance stacking leading to stress variations and alignment difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
By merging the housing and spring into a single integrally formed component, the patent eliminates the gaps that occur when multiple parts are assembled together. This eliminates the stress concentrations and variations that arise from tolerance stacking, thereby improving stress uniformity and reliability while maintaining manufacturing flexibility through additive manufacturing processes.
3Manufacturing precision
If traditional manufacturing techniques are used, then manufacturing simplicity is maintained, but component rotation during assembly occurs making alignment difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The integral formation of the spring with the housing creates a unified structure that prevents component rotation during assembly. The spring is positioned and oriented precisely within the housing as a single piece, eliminating alignment difficulties that occur with separate components, while additive manufacturing enables this integrated design.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The integrated spring design provides enhanced structural stability, prevents rotation during assembly, and allows for precise component alignment, addressing stress variations and enabling complex designs in gas turbine engines.
Implementation Method 1
a spring configured to deform in response to a force
Data Source
AI summary
According to an aspect, a bearing compartment includes a housing integrally formed with a spring configured to deform in response to a force. The housing includes an overhang region that is supported by the spring during an additive manufacturing build process. The spring includes a plurality of struts that extend axially within the housing.