Patent ID: 7921556

Claim:
A method for retrofitting a bladeless closure design of tangential entry round skirt buckets and a non-bladed closure bucket in a turbine wheel with a fully bladed closure set, the method comprising: removing the bladeless closure bucket from a peripheral margin of the wheel through a closure notch; removing an adjacent bladed trailing bucket with a round skirt dovetail from a peripheral margin of the wheel through the closure notch; removing an adjacent bladed leading bucket with a round skirt from the peripheral margin of the wheel through the closure notch; installing an adjacent leading bladed bucket, including a round skirt on a leading edge and a flat skirt on a trailing edge, through the closure notch onto a peripheral margin of the wheel; installing an adjacent trailing bladed bucket, including a round skirt on a trailing edge and a flat skirt on a leading edge, through the closure notch onto the peripheral margin of the wheel; and installing a bladed closure bucket, including flat skirts on both a leading edge and a trailing edge, through the closure notch onto the peripheral margin of the wheel.