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[charlie T colton]

Avio Aero goes for the double

Avio Aero goes for the double - Apr 2017

At the six Avio Aero plants where the components of the world's greatest new-generation commercial engine are built, delivery of the first 9X is already just a memory. Mainly because the work on the about 800 part numbers (which include even the smallest individual parts of an aircraft engine component) has gone ahead without a break, enabling delivery - in early March in the United States - of the low pressure turbine (LPT) module complete with Fan Hub Frame, and the sister LPT module complete with Turbine Rear Frame, actually built by Snecma and assembled at the Pomigliano plant. This was accompanied, a couple of weeks later, by delivery of the Accessory Gear Box.
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Engine tests on the GE9X are performed at the GE Aviation center in Peebles (Ohio). It is always useful (and fascinating) to look back at how the two main products, low pressure turbine and accessory gear box (AGB), as well as other essential components (oil tank, FHF, IGB and TGB), come to life in our plants.

The low pressure turbine is assembled in the new area of the Pomigliano plant, where the various parts of the LPT come together like the pieces of an international jigsaw puzzle, supplied by Risk Revenue Sharing Partners (IHI from Japan and Snecma from France), as well as our parent company in the USA. Specifically, the RSP firms provide the Turbine Rear Frame, mounted immediately behind the LPT, and the Fan Hub Frame, completed at Pomigliano and installed right behind the engine's huge main fan. Pomigliano also produces the shrouds (which line the inside of the case containing the entire module) for turbine stages 4, 5 and 6 and the blades of the 4th turbine stage, and finishes the 5th and 6th stage blades, additive-manufactured in TiAl at our Cameri center. The massive case that contains the whole low pressure turbine is built at our Brindisi center of excellence. All the LPT nozzles are produced at Bielsko Biala, in Poland. Apart from the oil tank and other small parts, the Rivalta headquarters produces the stage 1, 2 and 3 shrouds and the seal of the 6th turbine stage. Rivalta also manufactures both the inlet and the transfer gearboxes (abbreviated to IGB and TGB respectively), installed in the middle of the FHF, through which the drive shaft passes and which drives the IGB and TGB and through them the AGB, another of the Turin plant's specialties.




“Without a doubt, what makes the difference in Avio Aero,” says Ashley Havera, GE9X Manufacturing Manager for GE Aviation, “is the pride and leadership shown by every single member of the team. This is why Avio Aero is producing more components for the GE9X than for any other GE commercial engine program. For example, it's amazing how in just two years an empty, dark Avio Aero factory building has been transformed into a state-of-the-art assembly area for the 9X turbine module, with all that implies in terms of sourcing and installing machinery, tools and accessories."