GE Team Secretly Printed a Helicopter Engine, Replacing 900 Parts with 16
This is a follow-up on an earlier post. The author highlights a portion of the GE Report that I did not. There's no direct mention in either article saying what role, if any, Arcam equipment had in the helicopter engine redesign and build. A picture of an Arcam A2x immediately followed the text that was omitted earlier.
GE Additive’s Mohammad Ehteshami. Photo courtesy of GE Reports.
The GE Reports website occasionally publishes pieces that revisit the history of GE’s development work so far in additive manufacturing—the journey that has culminated in the LEAP fuel nozzle and other aircraft engine components now made through AM, as well as the purchase of AM equipment makers Arcam and Concept Laser. The latest example is a profile of Mohammad Ehteshami, head of the newly created GE Additive group, which describes the exploration into the potential of AM that occurred immediately after GE Aviation acquired 3D printing pioneer Morris Technologies in 2012. That exploration involved a team of engineers tasked with reinventing a helicopter engine, a team whose existence as a separate project group was disguised.
From the GE article:
The next section of the Report wasn't included but I think it's definitely worth posting.
GE's original report had the picture below immediately following the text above:
An Arcam 3D printer at GE’s Center for Additive Technologies Advancement. GE acquired a majority stake in Arcam last fall. The machine uses an electron beam, which is more powerful than laser. The beam enables the machines to print faster and fuse layers as thick at 100 microns, twice the width of what a laser can print. It also can grow parts from wonder materials like titanium aluminate (TiAl), which is 50 percent lighter than steel but very hard to shape. Image credit: Mark Trent for GE Reports
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.