With regards to GE there are a few potential routes for PR3D involvement. Firstly is the internal use. GE are fully intending to use additive on a range of scales and products across many of its divisions. Facilitated by GE Store those aspects of internal manufacturing approaching production scale (such as fuel nozzles, turbines etc) I expect will incorporate PR3D. As that use becomes more commonplace so I expect PR3D’s involvement to grow in the virtuous loop of data accumulation alongside commonality of use. As GE are looking to build their own machines I can see PR3D being installed at source.
Secondly there is the machines GE is building for the external market. GE suggested earlier this year they were looking to produce 10,000 machines over the next decade for external customers (Stryker, Oerlikon etc are initial customers) as well as the 1,000 they will use for internal purposes. That is a lot of machines. My view is that PR3D will be customized so as to be easily offered as an option to those that need it added to their machine package. For now via the OEM developer kit, later through installable circuit board integration. This is similar to the deals offered by the mystery OEM and Additive Industries and I expect future OEM’s who come on board. As no company owns Sigma I do not expect them to build with PR3D installed per se, but on demand. I see GE operating in the same fashion.
Thirdly is the supply chain. I expect GE will push its machines on to its suppliers and supply chain as an obvious market for its product. On top of that I expect they will push for, and demand consistent quality and certification. PR3D allows this. As has been mentioned before the Woodward connection was an interesting one with regards to GE’s involvement. As I have pointed out before GE and Woodward have a 50/50 joint venture in place for fuel systems for GE’s large commercial engines. “This joint venture will design, develop, source, supply and service the fuel system, including components from the fuel inlet up to the fuel nozzle for the GE90, GENX, GE9X and all future large commercial engines developed by GE Aviation. Woodward will be the preferred supplier to the joint venture. This joint venture with Woodward and the related program award aligns with GE’s strategy to ensure a stable supply chain to manage production volume growth.” It is especially notable that GE and Woodward jointly appoint the technology manager in the JV. There is also a chance, just on a thought, that the ability of PR3D to use the IIoT to connect machines will provide use for GE to keep track of its supply chain factory floors in-process, allowing more efficiencies, especially, say in a case like Woodward where it is a joint venture.
Fourthly is via contract work at bureaus such as Morf3D who can be certified by GE, using Pr3D to work on contracted parts for them or the supply chain. As an article pointed out recently GE are looking to certify some bureaus for their additive quality and this could be another route in for PR3D. It allows a constant, reliable quality standard across the quagmire of AM processes, machines and materials.
On top of it all, it is independent. PR3D allows an important engineering principle. It allows independent verification of quality so the manufacturer is not relying simply on the machine to certify its own quality. A machine only does what it thinks is correct, so for a machine to certify its work in-process is unsafe. Post process CT scan is another way of independent certification but GE is after, and Sigma is providing, that independence in-process. Something the machine itself cannot provide simply because it is not independent of itself.
GE helped pioneer and build Inspect. They have worked with them on the AM project (within the limits set by the initial project guidelines – including only using an older machine). GE will be well aware of what the new version of Pr3D can offer and I am still waiting for anyone to offer a suitable alternative. In the past we have been told that GE is vocal about Sigma Labs and their solutions at industry events and forums, something that very few people here have any access to and thus can only guess at.
There are other connections between Sigma and GE that reside in due diligence but above all the connection needs to make sense, and I believe it does on many levels. Many of which also hold true for our other partners, Siemens, Solar Turbines, Woodward, Aerojet, Honeywell, Trumpf etc
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