US Patent Issued to General Electric on Jan. 27 for "Cover plate connections for a hollow fan blade" (New York, Ohio Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,535,007, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to General Electric Co. (Evendale, Ohio).

"Cover plate connections for a hollow fan blade" was invented by Li Zheng (Niskayuna, N.Y.) and Nicholas Kray (Evendale, Ohio).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Cover plate connections for a hollow fan blade are disclosed. An example fan blade includes a hollow body including a first surface defining a cavity, the hollow body including an aperture extending through the first surface, the first surface including a notch, and a cover plate including a rib protruding from a second surface of the cover plate, the notch enclosing the rib to couple the cover plate t...