Earlier, GE Additives has made significant progress in 3D printing LEAP engine fuel nozzles and even engines. Recently, GE Additive has approved another new metal 3D printed part.
On November 6, 2018, GE Additive and General Electric announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted "design change" approval to replace the traditionally manufactured electric door opening system (PDOS) bracket for GE The airline's GEnx-2B commercial aviation engine, the Boeing 747-8, with additional manufacturing brackets.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made changes to the design of an additive-manufactured electric door opening system (PDOS) bracket.
The new fabricated PDOS bracket will be mass-produced at GE Airlines' plant in Auburn, Alabama, and this month will use the GE Additive Concept Laser M2 to connect Multilaser machines. GE expects that the first GEnx engines with the new bracket will be shipped in January 2019.
PDOS is used on the ground to open and close the fan guard door to gain access to the fan compartment for maintenance reasons.
The original PDOS bracket on the GEnx-2B engine was ground from solid metal blocks, resulting in approximately 50% material waste. Direct metal laser melting (DMLM) additive manufacturing technology is now used to make new stents, reducing waste by up to 90% and reducing part weight by 10%.
"We chose this project because it represented several of our firsts. This is the first program we have certified on the Concept Laser machine. This is also our first from design to production in less than ten months. One project, "said Eric Gatlin, general manager of GE Aviation's additive integrated product team.
The decision to mass-produce cobalt-chromium alloys on traditional nickel-based superalloys made construction faster. To make this method as efficient as possible, four brackets will be printed at the same time.
Using a custom interlocking design to house all four brackets on a single build board, the Laser for the Concept Laser M2 connector can print a plane's bracket in one build before post-processing and inspection.
Finally, by producing the stent entirely in-house, GE Airlines will also reduce its production costs.
"To ensure that the M2 cusing machine is certified to meet the stringent requirements of the aerospace industry, our collaboration with GE Additive's colleagues in this area is closer than ever. As we continue to consider we can design and redesign on GE Additive machines And many parts manufactured, I look forward to putting our team and technology at their pace, "Gatlin added.
"Observation teams from GE Airlines, GE Additive in the US, Mexico and Germany have all worked very well. In such a short period of time, they have performed well in PDOS mounts and have achieved real breakthrough success. See the M2 machine Producing flight-quality hardware and demonstrating its true capabilities is another important milestone in our own additive journey, "said Jason Oliver, president and CEO of GE Additive.