Patent ID: 7175387

Claim:
A seal arrangement for reducing the seal gaps within a rotary flow machine, the seal arrangement comprising: rotor blades and guide vanes arranged in at least one rotor blade row and at least one guide vane row, respectively, each rotor blade and guide vane having blade roots and vane roots which are fastened to the rotor blade rows and guide vane rows, respectively; the blade roots and vane roots each having a respective platform; a sealing element comprising a plastically deformable material positioned (a) between at least two platforms of adjacent blade roots and vane roots along a rotor blade row, or (b) between at least two platforms of adjacent blade roots and vane roots along a guide vane row, or (c) between a platform of either a blade root or a vane root and a rotary flow machine component when directly adjoining the platform; the sealing element being firmly connected to at least one platform and having a thickness protruding from the surface of the at least one platform; said at least two adjacent platforms or said platform and said component when directly adjoining the platform enclose a cold gap s c in a cold condition and a hot gap s w in a hot condition during operation of the rotary flow machine; and wherein the plastically deformable material comprises a sintered metal comprising a homogeneously baked combination from NiAl, FeAl, or CoAl.