Wayne A Lillibridge

6840740, Jan 11, 2005

Dec 6, 2002

10/310855

Gary Edward Yehle - Clifton Park NY, US
Wayne Alan Lillibridge - Clifton Park NY, US
Noel Jacob Bylina - Niskayuna NY, US

General Electric Company - Schenectady NY

F01D 530

416220R, 416 84, 416500

A turbine bucket dovetail secures buckets in a turbine rotor. The turbine bucket dovetail includes a plurality of hooks engageable with a wheel post of the turbine rotor, which hooks extend in an axial direction relative to the turbine rotor. A pocket is machined in a tangential face of the dovetail, resulting in reduced peak stress in the wheel post dovetail edge at the gate opening.

20030077176, Apr 24, 2003

Oct 15, 2001

09/976295

Gary Yehle - Clifton Park NY, US
Noel Bylina - Niskayuna NY, US
Wayne Lillibridge - Clifton Park NY, US

F01D005/32

416/222000

A dovetail joint between a rotor wheel and a bucket includes a male dovetail component on the rotor wheel and a female dovetail component on the bucket. The male dovetail component has axially projecting hooks with slanted surfaces along generally radially inwardly directed surfaces. The slanted surfaces form included angles with a plane normal to the axis of rotation and bisecting the wheel dovetail which are larger than 90 and remain constant for all of the hooks. Single radius fillets are also provided along the transition surfaces between the slanted crush surfaces and the neck surfaces. The stress concentrations are therefore minimized.