GE Aviation has announced its Loyang facility in Singapore is repairing commercial jet engine components with metal additive manufacturing technology.
The Engine Services Singapore unit within GE Aviation (GE AESS) employs 1,700 employees and accounts for more than 60% of GE Aviation’s global repair volume.
Additive manufacturing is suitable for this application because components wear different during service and thus need a customised repair. By deploying GE Additive Concept Laser M2 machines, the company is typically said to halve the time it usually takes to repair aircraft parts. Already, GE AESS is using metal 3D printing to repair parts in GE Aviation’s CF6 engines – its best-selling commercial engine for wide body aircraft – and plans to roll out the technology for the repair of the CFM56 parts – the best-selling engine in commercial aviation history.
In applying the technology for the repairs of engine components, GE AESS has established an automated process to repair high-pressure compressor blade tips, which run at high speeds, tight tolerances and experience regular erosion that demands continuous repair and replacement. GE AESS believes it is the first MRO facility in the world to implement an approved additive repair for high pressure compressor airfoils.
While traditionally, the repair of a part like this would require a process of cutting, welding and grinding to create the right shape, the company now uses image-analysis software to map the shape of a used blade and create customised instructions for the Concept Laser M2 machine. A new tip is then built with precise alignment and profile, while also saving time and costs associated with labour and machining. The 3D printed parts is near-net shape and requires minimal additional processing.
“Productivity has increased with our employees able to repair twice as many parts in a day compared to the conventional repair process,” commented Iain Rodger, Managing Director at GE AESS. “Less equipment is also needed for post-processing, so the floor space required is reduced by one-third. Further to that we are currently assessing what we are going to do in turbine parts and other components beyond compressors. Day-to-day, working with customers, they will know that there’s a difference as they will be seeing their parts return to them more quickly.”
In the roll-out of this metal additive manufacturing repair process, the Singaporean GE team has been in regular contact with the Aviation team in Cincinnati and the Additive team in Lichtenfels. While the Western teams developed printing parameters for the Concept Laser M2 machine, the team in Singapore focused on the modifications needed to make the process ‘robust and production-friendly.’
The team in Singapore designed tooling to prepare and print parts efficiently and fine-tuned its repair process to include pre- and post-processing and inspection capabilities. Extensive trials were carried out to ensure quality and safety before repairs were substantiated, and there was also the design of a pilot production line which included an automated powder recycling system. Though COVID-19 disrupted progress, by 2021 the team in Loyang was ready for its full-scale production line to go live.
“Additive gives us speed and productivity with less floor space required,” offered Shih Tung Ngiam, a Senior Engineering Manager at GE Aviation, Engine Services in Singapore. “We gave a lot of careful consideration to how best to integrate the M2s into the rest of the repair line. We completed an assessment of which parts of the repair we should leave along, which ones could benefit from additive and what other changes we needed to make to the repair process for it to make sense.”
As part of its national high-tech strategy, Singapore’s Economic Development Board supported the initial development trials and training for the introduction of metal additive technology for aviation maintenance into the country.
