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Nov 5, 2018 | By Thomas

GE Additive and GE Aviation have announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given ‘change in design’ approval to replace a conventionally manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket, used on GE Aviation’s GEnx-2B commercial airline engines that power the Boeing 747-8, with an additively manufactured bracket.

FAA ‘change in design’ approval for additively manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket

The new additively manufactured PDOS brackets will be mass produced at GE Aviation’s facility in Auburn, Alabama, using GE Additive Concept Laser M2 cusing Multilaser machines this month.  GE Aviation anticipates the first GEnx engines installed with the new brackets will be shipped in January 2019.

The PDOS is used on the ground to open and close the fan cowl doors to enable access to the fan compartment for maintenance reasons.
 
The original PDOS brackets on the GEnx-2B engines were milled from a solid block of metal, resulting in approximately 50 percent of material waste.  Now using direct metal laser melting (DMLM) additive technology to manufacture the new brackets, that waste has been reduced by as much as 90% and part weight by 10%.

“We chose this project because it represented several firsts for us. It’s the first program we certified on a Concept Laser machine. It’s also the first project we took from design to production in less than ten months,” said Eric Gatlin, general manager, additive integrated product team, GE Aviation.

The decision to mass produce using a cobalt-chrome alloy over a traditional nickel-based superalloy has enabled a faster build. To make this approach as efficient as possible, four brackets will be printed at the same time.

Using a bespoke, interlocking design to house all four brackets on a single build plate, the Concept Laser M2 cusing machine’s pair of lasers can print an aircraft’s worth of brackets in one build, before post-processing and inspection.

Finally, by taking production of the brackets entirely in-house,  GE Aviation will also reduce its production costs.

“To ensure the M2 cusing machines were certified to meet the strict requirements for the aerospace industry, collaboration on this program has been closer than usual with our colleagues at GE Additive. As we continue thinking about the many parts we can design,  redesign and manufacture on GE Additive machines, I’m looking forward to putting both our teams and the technology through their paces,”  Gatlin added.

“It’s been outstanding to watch teams from GE Aviation, GE Additive across the US, Mexico and Germany collaborate. In such a short space of time, they have really excelled with the PDOS bracket and achieved a truly groundbreaking success.  Seeing the M2 machines produce flight quality hardware, and demonstrating what it is truly capable of, is another great milestone in our own additive journey,” said Jason Oliver, President & CEO, GE Additive.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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