Read time: 15 mins.
Key highlights:
- Designs on AM: How GE Aerospace is implementing DfAM principles in the development of new engines.
- Sleepless nights: GE's Additive Technology Center irons out the creases before production ramps up.
- Cause for Colab: How GE Aerospace works with GE Additive in the development of AM machinery.
This article was first published via the Additive Insight newsletter on March 28th, 2024.
When Thomas Edison made his carbon filament breakthrough in the development of the incandescent light bulb in 1879, the light emitting beyond the glass bulb would last only a matter of hours. Innovative though it may have been, it was ultimately insufficient for the world we were threatening to build.
Edison and his peers persevered, however. The development of a bamboo filament upped the lifespan of a light bulb to 1,200 hours, and the tungsten filament pushed things further along again. Today, fluorescent light bulb technology lasts tens of thousands of hours, and LED lighting technology can last hundreds of thousands.
As Edison spearheaded the research and development of light bulb technology in the US, and separate teams worked to push the envelope across the Atlantic Ocean, he merged his Edison General Electric Company with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric (GE) in 1896.
Fast-forward 130 years and General Electric has established itself not only as a leader in energy, but also healthcare and aerospace. And through its endeavours in the latter, it has invested heavily in additive manufacturing (AM), a suite of technologies that have a not too dissimilar trajectory to the light bulb, according to Benito Trevino, General Manager for GE Aerospace’s Additive Integrated Product Team (IPT).
“The first light bulb lasted several hours, and that’s not sustainable for what we need in the world,” he says. “Now, they last thousands of hours. Same thing here. We need that breakthrough in performance so that we can really unlock all the possibilities of additive.”
Thinking additive
Trevino is speaking on a Friday afternoon, dialling into a meeting set up after a tour of GE Aerospace’s Additive Technology Center (ATC) in Cincinnati, Ohio, hosted by ATC Site Leader Chris Philp. His voice is being sent across the airwaves to provide insights on strategy, supplementing those given by Philp on the ground.
During the tour of the ATC, it is made clear that GE Aerospace has a big play with additive in the defence sector, particularly through the development of its T901 engine and its work with the US Army AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter contracts. Much of the evidence of this work is shielded by coverings and rooms that require authorised access, but it is referenced at regular intervals. GE Aerospace’s most renowned additive manufacturing applications – such as the LEAP fuel nozzle – have so far been produced for commercial aircraft, but it is clear that defence is now firmly on the agenda.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in interest on the military front,” Trevino offers. “This, coupled with an increase in complexity of the hardware, is pushing the technology to the limits. We want to seize on the opportunity ahead of us.”
“When we first started using additive manufacturing for LEAP and 9X, GE had big commercial engine programmes coming through,” Philp adds. “So, we were able to use those engine tests to validate the potential of additive technology and the rest is history. We built our reputation internally within GE as something that we should be thinking about with new engines going forward. Now, new engines, such as Catalyst, T901 & XA100, were designed with additive capabilities in mind from the beginning.”
Behind the scenes
When GE Aerospace first began applying additive manufacturing to parts for its mature engines around a decade ago, they were typically replacing existing components one-for-one, as the application warranted. Some of these components, the ones that kickstarted GE’s journey with additively manufactured end-use parts, are presented on a table to the left as we step foot on the factory floor. They visibly grow in size and complexity and lead the eye towards a poster of the Apache and Blackhawk helicopters adorning the back wall of the facility.
