Additive manufacturing department of General Electric shipped the 100,000th 3D printed fuel nozzle tip for the LEAP family of turbofan engines that are used on Airbus and Boeing aircrafts. Inspection of these parts before and after use can be completed with the use of laser 3D scanning (see examples here).
The additive manufacturing plant of General Electric is located in Auburn, Alabama, and operates as part of GE Additive. It produces aircraft components for another department, GE Aviation, among other things. The plant has been manufacturing 3D printed fuel nozzle tips for turbofan CFM LEAP engines since 2015.
These powertrains are designed by General Electric and French company Safran Aircraft Engines under the collaborative brand named CFM International. The engines manage to lift Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A321neo aircrafts from the ground, as well as Chinese COMAC C919 engines.
The LEAP engines have been in operation since 2016 and have more than 10 million hours of flight under their belt by the beginning of 2021. Each engine is equipped with either 18 or 19 fuel nozzle tips, depending on the version. The tips are made on industrial 3D printers that work under the SLM (Selective Laser Melting) technology.
Initially, the majority of the devices at the Alabama plant were made by German company Electro-Optical Systems (EOS GmbH) but the latest changes show a growing share of laser 3D printers by German company Concept Laser GmbH, as well as electron beam machines by Swedish company Arcam AB. The latter are also used for titanium aluminide turbine blade production for turbofan GE9X engines. In 2016, the majority of Concept Laser and Arcam AB shares were bought by General Electric.
How much is 100,000 exactly? That is around 23,000 products per year. The 30,000 fuel nozzle tips milestone was passed several years ago.
Eric Gatlin, additive general manager at GE Aviation, commented: “We opened the industry’s first site for mass production using the additive manufacturing process, and to achieve this milestone affirms our plans and investments were on target. There is a bright and exciting future for this technology.”
