GE Aviation Building U.S. Blueprint to Industrialize CMCs
February 24 2017 - 09:53AM
Business Wire
$200 million Huntsville operation to produce up to 20 metric
tons of material a year
The amount of CMC raw material used for GE Aviation will be
approximately 20 times greater this year than it was in 2007.
To get there, the business is building the blueprint to CMC
industrialization.
GE Aviation is on the final phase to create its most vertically
integrated, new material system ever introduced in the United
States.
By 2020, GE Aviation is projected to have more than 750 U.S.
employees dedicated to its CMC industry.
In just 10 years, GE Aviation has spent more than $1.5 billion
to bring advanced CMC technology to market. Beyond GE’s Global
Research Center in Niskayuna (NY), this investment includes four
production facilities:
- A CMC laboratory at its headquarters in
Evendale (OH) to develop CMC production designs
- A low-rate production facility in
Newark (DE) for CMC raw material and components
- A full-rate production facility in
Asheville (NC) to mass-produce CMCs, including the static turbine
shrouds flying in CFM LEAP engines
- Now, GE Aviation is constructing the
last significant piece of the CMCs industrialization puzzle – a
full-rate production raw material facility in Huntsville (AL).
Once fully operational, Huntsville will produce up to 20 metric
tons (20,000 KG) of CMC material a year. One CFM LEAP engine uses
approximately 1 KG of CMC material.
GE Aviation is investing more than $200 million to construct two
factories on 100 acres in Huntsville. One plant will mass produce
silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic fiber, the first high volume
production operation in the United States. Supported by funding
($21.9 million) from the U.S. Air Force Research Lab Title III
Office, this plant will dramatically increase U.S. capability to
produce SiC ceramic fiber capable of withstanding temperatures of
2400F.
The adjacent GE factory on the same campus will use the SiC
ceramic fiber to make unidirectional CMC prepreg necessary to
fabricate the CMC components.
“We continue to make great progress,” Huntsville site leader Jon
Lyford said. “The engineering and construction teams are on track
to start placing process equipment by October. The CMC prepreg
facility commissioning will be complete in the summer of 2018. The
CMC fiber facility commissioning remains targeted for the spring of
2019.”
The GE Aviation Huntsville team is 24 employees but growing
rapidly. Once fully operational, the Huntsville facilities will
employ up to 300 people.
The only other large-scale SiC ceramic fiber factory is operated
by NGS Advanced Fibers Co. in Toyama, Japan. Formed in 2012, NGS is
a joint company of Nippon Carbon, GE and Safran of France. The US
SiC fiber plant will license fiber-producing technology from NGS
Advanced Fibers Co.
NGS is in the final qualification phase of their expanded
factory to increase capacity to meet growing worldwide demand. The
SiC fiber plant in Huntsville will complement the growing capacity
at NGS.
Advanced Silicon Carbide Fiber, a GE Aviation JV, will sell
fiber manufactured in Huntsville to the Department of Defense, GE
businesses, Safran and other external customers. The NGS partners
will have the opportunity to become equity partners in the
Huntsville plant.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170224005482/en/
GE AviationNick Hurm, 513-658-1166nick.hurm@ge.com
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