New Research Center Will Take 3D Printing to the Next Level
On October 6, a Boeing 747 modified for testing jet engines taxied along a concrete runway on the edge of the Mojave Desert and took off with a brand new engine strapped to its left wing. Although the engine’s maiden flight was short, it made aviation history.
For the first time, the engine, called LEAP, flew with 19 fuel nozzles 3D-printed by a computer-guided laser from layers of metal powder (see below). “We designed these nozzles to efficiently feed fuel into the jet engine, but they are also a work of art,” says Greg Morris, a 3D-printing pioneer who leads additive manufacturing research at GE Aviation. (GE Aviation acquired his company, Morris Technologies, in 2012.) “Methods like 3D printing give designers new freedoms and unleash their imagination. You couldn’t make this nozzle any other way.”
The 3D-printed LEAP fuel nozzle, for example, is five times more durable than the previous model, and 25 percent lighter. Additive manufacturing allowed engineers to reduce the number of individual pieces that were brazed and welded together from 20 to just one part, and achieve the best fuel flow geometry. “These tools unleash incredible creativity,” Morris says.
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New Research Center Will Take 3D Printing to the Next Level |
