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GE embracing 3D printing for faster production

From the Dayton Business Journal - GE embracing 3D printing for faster production - Sep 21, 2016

General Electric has a new motto for its 60,000 engineers: "think additivelty."

Edward Herderick, additive technologies leader at GE's corporate supply chain and operations business, said the company is refining 3D printing for more core parts of its business. This comes as Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric (NYSE: GE), recently estimated a quarter of all GE components will be impacted by additive manufacturing.

Speaking at the Additive Manufacturing Industry Summit, a gathering of manufacturing, medical and aerospace industry looking into the potential of 3D printing at the Hope Hotel, Herderick laid out GE's strategy to use the technology more aggressively.

"We can make components in no-fail industries that are repeatable, affordable and comparable to traditional industries," Herderick said. "Every additive machine is like a foundry."

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GE says 3D printing technology hasn't changed the process. Each machine still must run in compliance with industry guidelines and parts must go through the same rigorous testing. The printing is the easy part, because wherever a 3D printer is taken, it still has to have supplies, trained operators and testing and measurement for parts. Using 3D printing as a business still takes tens of millions of dollars in investment, dozens of employees and years of training.

"It's a huge physical infrastructure investment, the same if you were investing in a foundry," he said.

But additive manufacturing is already changing things, Herderick said. Parts are being made more quickly and at a reduced cost.

One of GE's best-known 3D printed parts, the fuel nozzle for its LEAP aircraft engine, is set to be printed 35,000 times next year, and could be 100,000 by 2020, he said. The part is already flying on Boeing, Airbus and other aircraft.

GE also prints parts for other projects like gas turbines and metal control valves in its oil and gas division, speeding up production and reducing cost. 3D printing will never totally replace traditional methods, he said, but the costs of production and testing for the technology continues to go down.

"A lot of people think of GE as this great industrial company, they don't (necessarily) think of GE as an industrial design company," Herderick said. "We're investing in this, and it;s really the beginning of a new era of growth."

GE has more than 10,000 employees in Cincinnati and 1,200 in Dayton. The company's aircraft engine business invests $2 billion in this area annually, and its business in Ohio has continued to grow because the state has been friendly to the industry.



GE invests $2 billion in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas annually?

"a quarter of all GE components will be impacted by additive manufacturing." Who wants to try and put a $ figure on the value of 1/4 of all GE components?