GE Aviation's 3D printed Advanced Turboprop engine passes first test in Prague

3Ders.org ^ | Dec 28, 2017 | Benedict

[marktwain]

Sad the GE felt compelled to test this engine in the Czech Republic.

I suspect it is because of insane regulatory hurdles in the United States.

I hope President Trump’s reforms rectify the matter.

[KTM rider]

I was thinking the same thing, why Prague !

I used to see a Titanium factory in California, i wonder if its still there

[SharpRightTurn]

“around 400 designers, engineers, and materials experts at GE have contributed to the creation of the Advanced Turboprop engine, one-third of which is made from titanium 3D printed parts. It’s a momentous achievement for GE, and last Friday the engine passed its first firing test.”

I wonder if China has stolen the plans yet.

[phormer phrog phlyer]

GE bought an engine manufacturer there, they are doing most of there turboprops there now.

[aumrl]

better than china

[null and void]

3-D Printer Ping!

Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.

[Parley Baer]

I am impressed.

[Snickering Hound]

http://cessna.txtav.com/en/turboprop/denali
To go in the Cessna Denali still in development.

[DoughtyOne]

So cool! Or is that hot? LOL

Thanks for the post. Excellent.

[bioqubit]

Plans? I am sure there is a lot trial and error, a lot of art, only obtained by making and fixing a lot of mistakes.

Down to 12 parts? That is truly amazing. As the technology advances....one part.

[Garth Tater]

"Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer. "

Yes it does.

That printed 1911 looks nice, but I wonder when someone is going to put in the design effort to reduce the part count in a good semi-auto pistol like was done with that engine.

[Vince Ferrer]

Down to 12 parts? That is truly amazing. As the technology advances....one part.

This is where 3D printing excels. Complex things like engines currently are made from hundreds of parts because they have to be broken up into shapes that can be made on current CNC machines, then assembled into a larger working assembly. A 3D printer is not limited to simple shapes, and so shapes can be combined easily into more complex assemblies while they are being printed. It is this advantage that can reduce the manufacturing time for complex machines, and bring their cost down.

[null and void]

Outstanding question!

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

When I saw this post I quickly opened and read it to see if this was at the Evendale or Lynn plants. A Czech plant????? I worked in the Flight Propulsion Division in Evendale for a couple of years. Now I wonder if the plants are still there. Oh wellllllll.

[lgjhn23]

GE was run “into the ground” during Immelt’s last 2-3 years. Just one quick glance at a 2-year GE stock chart pretty much shows the “fall from grace” of one of America’s oldest and most prestigious companies. They’ve finally shed themselves of that guy and the old Board last October, and the new CEO and Board of Directors are now tasked with putting GE back together again...no easy task, especially for a huge conglomerate the size of GE. I suspect they’ll focus on their 4 most profitable business segments: power, aviation, healthcare and renewable energy. They’ll probably sell-off and/or reduce, everything else that’s causing them to bleed out. This good news is for the aviation segment....and pretty interesting technology that they’ll probably carry over to other segments.

[tang-soo]

When I saw this post I quickly opened and read it to see if this was at the Evendale or Lynn plants. A Czech plant????? I worked in the Flight Propulsion Division in Evendale for a couple of years. Now I wonder if the plants are still there. Oh wellllllll.

Allen, I also worked for GE in Evendale. I worked in the Stealth group in the basement of building 100. Also worked in some of the closed areas in 200. I was there from August 1987 to May 1993. Still have some friends there. I lived in Fairfield at the time, near Jungle Jims.

[PhiloBedo]

As post further down, GE bought Walther about 10 years ago. Walther was a Czech company with all their manufacturing in country.

Walther has a turbo-prop engine, similar to the Canadian PT-6. It was easier for GE to buy this company than build a clean-sheet, competing engine for this segment of the market.

[Allen In Texas Hill Country]

Allen, I also worked for GE in Evendale. I worked in the Stealth group in the basement of building 100. Also worked in some of the closed areas in 200. I was there from August 1987 to May 1993. Still have some friends there. I lived in Fairfield at the time, near Jungle Jims.
***********************************************************
I worked there in the late 60s. They were using a GE-635 for design and production of the military and civilian engines. While it wasn’t a super computer it was damn near close. It was built in their computer facility in Phoenix.

Word came down to use the 635 in a commercial application besides the engine work. So a very large scale payroll application was designed, coded and implemented at Evendale and Lynn. It was so successful they wanted another commercial application. I told management to transfer me to Phoenix and they said sorry. We parted ways. Lived in Sharonville, Mt. Healthy and then Fairfield. How about that.

[Secret Agent Man]

I am al for the benefits that some 3d printer designs can offer.

But the downside may be getting replacement parts for this that are very pricey. 855 parts to 12. What are you gonna be charged for new parts on the 12 part engine?