FAA Clears First Additive Manufactured Part for Flight in a GE Commercial Jet Engine
A cobalt-chrome temperature sensor housing is being retrofit to GE90 engines used by Boeing.
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GE Aviation has announced that the cobalt-chrome housing for a compressor inlet temperature sensor has become the first additive-manufactured part to be certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to fly inside GE commercial jet engines. The company has begun working with Boeing to retrofit more than 400 GE90-94B jet engines with this new part.
This housing won’t be unique for long, the company says. Flight tests are underway for the LEAP engine, developed through a joint venture between GE Aviation and France’s Safran, which uses 19 additively manufactured fuel nozzles. This engine is aimed at new, narrow-body planes such as the Boeing 737MAX and the Airbus A320neo, and GE says more than 8,500 orders for the engine have already been received.
Read more in this statement from GE.
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