General Electric (IW 500/7) (GE) plans to develop an additive manufacturing plant for jet engine parts. It will be the first of its kind.
“Additive manufacturing is the new frontier. It has taken the shackles off the engineering community, and gives them a clean canvas," said GE Aviation president David Joyce.
In an article for Aviation Week, Guy Norris reports that the facility, which will be housed in GE's newly-opened 300,000-square-foot high pressure turbine blade manufacturing facility in Auburn, Ala., will create complex fuel nozzles for the CFM Leap.
"This first application, the fuel nozzle, is the most advanced part we have ever made,” Joyce said.
Norris writes: "To meet the demands of the production ramp-up for Leap, which is in development for the re-engined Airbus A32neo and Boeing 737 MAX as well as Comac’s C919, the flow of fuel nozzles from Alabama is scheduled to grow from 1,000 per year in 2015 to more than 40,000 per year by 2020.
"GE says the plant, which could have up to 10 printing machines installed by late 2015, has the potential to grow to more than 50 machines and produce 'well in excess' of the 40,000 unit target in the future."
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