Last October, GE Aviation, Cincinnati, flight-tested one of its new Leap jet engines, the first to be fitted with 19 fuel nozzles that were 3-D-printed from metal powder. The single part is reported to be five times more durable and 25 percent lighter than the previous nozzle, which consisted of 20 parts brazed and welded together.
A month later, GE announced it would build a $32 million research and education center in Pennsylvania focused solely on additive technologies. Greg Morris, a 3-D printing pioneer who heads up additive manufacturing research at GE Aviation, says, "We want to light the fire behind additive. This is still a young tool, but it's also a very powerful and disruptive tool. We want to maximize its use across all of GE's businesses."
Related story: 3-D printer lets designer be toolmaker and molder
