Pratt & Whitney
Pratt and Whitney has announced it is using additive manufacturing to accelerate the repair of critical GTF engine components.
The US aerospace company says the process, which was developed at its North American Technology Accelerator in Florida in collaboration with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology and the RTX Research Center, is expected to save 60% on process time and recover $100 million worth of parts through 3D printing-enabled repairs within its MRO process over the next five years.
"A more agile, additive repair process allows us to better serve our customers by improving turnaround time, while reducing tooling costs, complexity and set up," said Kevin Kirkpatrick, vice president of Aftermarket Operations at Pratt & Whitney. "At the same time, it reduces our dependency on current material supply constraints. Additive technology has the potential to support a range of critical GTF part repairs and we're actively working to explore additional opportunities for implementation."
The process is a metal Direct Energy Deposition (DED) technology and is said to eliminate several steps in its current repair methods with minimal machine changeovers and reduced heat treatment cycles. Pratt and Whitney says it is currently working to industrialise the process and scale throughout its global GTF MRO network, with potential future applications in the restoration of components worn through normal engine operation.
The use of additive manufacturing for repair isn’t a new concept but has become a sweet spot for DED and cold spray-based AM technologies. Additive OEMs like Optomec have found ample success in the repair market with the delivery of its 10 millionth turbine blade refurbishment back in 2020 and contracts with the US Air Force and Air Force Sustainment Center based on similar applications. In the last 12 months, other machine manufacturers such as Nikon launched a DED metal 3D printer geared towards turbine blade repair applications, and earlier this year ADDiTEC introduced its AMDROiD laser DED system tailored to metal repair applications in the defence sector.
