GE Additive and GE Aviation have announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given ‘change in design’ approval to replace a conventionally manufactured power door opening system (PDOS) bracket on GE Aviation’s GEnx-2B commercial-airline engines (used to power the Boeing 747-8) with an additively manufactured bracket.

Volume production of the new bracket will start this month at GE Aviation’s facility in Auburn, Alabama, using GE Additive Concept Laser M2 cusing Multilaser machines this month.

GE Aviation expects the first GEnx engines installed with the new brackets to be shipped in January 2019.

The PDOS is used on the ground to open and close the fan cowl doors to allow access to the fan compartment for maintenance purposes.

The original PDOS brackets on the GEnx-2B engines were produced from a solid block of metal, using conventional methods such as milling, resulting in around 50% of the material being wasted.

Now, using direct metal laser melting additive technology to manufacture the new brackets, waste has been reduced by as much as 90% — and the design of the bracket has been improved to reduce its weight by 10%.

Eric Gatlin, general manager (additive integrated product team) at GE Aviation (www.geaviation.com), said: “We chose this project because it represented several firsts for us. It is the first programme we certified on a Concept Laser machine.

"It is also the first project we took from design to production in less than 10 months. To ensure the M2 cusing machines were certified to meet the strict requirements for the aerospace industry, collaboration on this programme has been closer than usual with our colleagues at GE Additive.

"As we continue thinking about the many parts we can design, re-design and manufacture on GE Additive machines, I’m looking forward to putting both our teams and the technology through their paces.”

Jason Oliver, president and CEO of GE Additive (www.ge.com/additive), said: “It has been outstanding to watch teams from GE Aviation and GE Additive across the USA, Mexico and Germany collaborate. In such a short space of time, they have really excelled with the PDOS bracket and achieved a truly groundbreaking success.

"Seeing the M2 machines produce flight-quality hardware — and show what they are capable of — is another great milestone in our own additive journey.”