GE Aviation Reaches Twin 100,000-unit Manufacturing Milestones

Two GE Aviation facilities producing advanced jet engine components recently passed major production milestones—one facility shipped the 100,000^th CMC turbine shroud, the other the 100,000^th metal AM fuel nozzle tip.

CMCs, jet engine additively manufactured fuel nozzle GE Aviation
 

GE Aviation’s Asheville, North Carolina, facility recently shipped its 100,000^th turbine shroud made from ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials, while the Auburn, Alabama, facility recently shipped its 100,000th additively manufactured fuel nozzle tip.

The Asheville facility, which began producing CMCs in 2014, is the aviation industry’s first mass manufacturing site for jet engine components made from CMCs. The Auburn site began producing fuel nozzles in 2015 and was the industry’s first mass manufacturing site for producing aircraft engine parts using metal AM.

Both parts are made for the LEAP engine, a product of CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines, which entered revenue service in 2016 and surpassed 10 million flight hours earlier in 2021. Each engine has 18 shrouds and 18 or 19 fuel nozzles, depending on the model.

GE Aviation employees in Huntsville, Alabama, support high volume, raw material production of CMCs.

“We opened the industry’s first site for mass production using the AM process, and to achieve this milestone affirms our plans and investments were on target,” said Eric Gatlin, additive general manager for GE Aviation. “There is a bright and exciting future for this technology.”