GE Aviation completed testing a 35% additive manufactured demonstrator engine to validate 12 additive parts in its Advanced Turboprop (ATP) engine, which will power the all-new Cessna Denali single-engine turboprop aircraft. Additive components reduce the ATP’s weight by 5% while contributing a 1% improvement in specific fuel consumption (SFC). An additive CT7 technology demonstrator engine, dubbed the “a-CT7,” was designed, built and tested in 18 months, reducing more than 900 conventionally manufactured parts to 16 additive manufactured parts. The ATP engine architecture is derived from the in-service CT7 engine, allowing for additive part commonality between the two engine programs. The ATP will include more printed components than any production engine in aviation history with 35% of the turboprop’s parts built via additive manufacturing. 855 conventionally manufactured parts will be reduced to 12 additive parts on the ATP, including: sumps, bearing housings, frames, exhaust case, combustor liner, heat exchangers and stationary flowpath components. In the coming months, GE will run a second a-CT7 test with even more additive parts to expand the technology to additional structures and assemblies. The additive components for a-CT7 and ATP tests are built at GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center (ADC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. The a-CT7 tests are conducted at GE Aviation’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts. GE expects to run its first full ATP engine test by the end of 2017 in Europe.
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Mailing Address
AviTrader Publications Corp.
Suite 305, South Tower
5811 Cooney Road
Richmond, BC V6X 3M1
Canada