Belly band seal with underlapping ends

1. A sealing band for use in a turbomachine having a plurality of stages, each stage comprising a rotatable disk and blades carried thereby, at least one pair of adjacent rotatable disks defining an annular gap therebetween and having respective opposing sealing band receiving slots aligned with the annular gap, the sealing band comprising:

a plurality of adjacent seal strips located in series adjacent to one another, and the adjacent seal strips including opposing end faces located in facing relationship adjacent to one another wherein said seal strips have a width greater than said annular gap;

an underlap portion is affixed adjacent to an end of at least one of said seal strips and extends past the end face of an adjacent one of said seal strips, along a radially facing side of said adjacent one of said seal strips; and

wherein said underlap portion has a width, extending across said gap, that is less than a width of said at least one seal strip and said underlap portion has a width no greater than said annular gap.

2. The sealing band of claim 1 , wherein said underlap portion has a width less than said annular gap.

3. The sealing band of claim 1 , wherein said underlap portion is attached in abutting relation to the end face of said at least one seal strip.

4. The sealing band of claim 3 , wherein said underlap portion extends radially away from a radially facing side of said at least one seal strip.

5. The sealing band of claim 3 , wherein said radially facing side of both said at least one seal strip and said adjacent seal strip faces radially inwardly of said at least one pair of adjacent rotatable disks.

6. The sealing band of claim 1 , wherein said underlap portion extends radially beyond said sealing band receiving slots.

7. The sealing band of claim 6 , wherein said adjacent disks include opposing end faces defining said annular gap therebetween, and said underlap portion includes opposing sides extending adjacent and parallel to said opposing side faces.

8. A sealing band in a turbomachine having a plurality of stages, each stage comprising a rotatable disk and blades carried thereby, at least one pair of adjacent rotatable disks defining an annular gap therebetween and having respective opposing sealing band receiving slots aligned with the annular gap, the sealing band comprising:

a plurality of adjacent seal strips located in series adjacent to one another, and the adjacent seal strips including opposing end faces located in facing relationship adjacent to one another, each said seal strip including opposing radially outwardly and inwardly facing seal strip faces;

an underlap portion is affixed adjacent to an end face of at least one of said seal strips and extends circumferentially past the end face of an adjacent one of said seal strips, along the inwardly facing seal strip face of said adjacent one of said seal strips; and

said underlap portion comprises opposing radially outwardly and inwardly facing underlap faces, wherein said outwardly facing underlap face is coplanar with said inwardly facing seal strip face;

wherein said sealing band receiving slots are formed in disk arms and associated with each of said adjacent disks, said annular gap being defined between spaced disk arm faces formed on said disk arms, and said underlap portion having opposing sides, each underlap portion side located adjacent to a respective disk arm face;

wherein said opposing sides of the underlap portion define a width, extending across said gap, that is less than a width of said at least one seal strip, and said width defined by said opposing sides of said underlap portion is no greater than said annular gap.

9. The sealing band of claim 8 , wherein said outwardly facing underlap face forms a planar surface between said underlap portion sides.

10. The sealing band of claim 8 , wherein said underlap portion comprises a separate element attached to said end of said at least one seal strip.

11. The sealing band of claim 10 , wherein a section of said underlap portion adjacent to said at least one seal strip has a width substantially equal to a width of said seal strip.

12. The sealing band of claim 11 , wherein said underlap portion includes an underlap element defining said outwardly facing underlap face.

13. The sealing band of claim 8 , wherein said underlap portion extends radially inwardly beyond said sealing band receiving slots, and defines a seal spanning between said pair of adjacent disks and closing a gap between said end face of said at least one seal strip and said end face of said adjacent seal strip.