ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,698,713, issued on Aug. 4, was assigned to MTU Aero Engines AG (Munich).
"Annulus contouring" was invented by Markus Brettschneider (Karlsfeld, Germany) and Fadi Maatouk (Munich).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An airfoil array segment for an airfoil array of a turbomachine including a platform having a platform surface and an upstream-side platform edge, as well as at least two airfoils, whose leading and trailing edges define an inter-airfoil strip, the platform surface having a trough with a bottom configured such that the bottom is a global minimum and a radial position of the trough decreases relative to a reference surface in the circ...