Mark

I thought rather differently to you. With all the backing of GE the best they can achieve with a 17 year old design is an engine that looks hardly able to self sustain. I would rather say it was pathetic.

The technology of direct metal sintering is not new technology. What is new is combining the 3d printing and metal sintering. The metals available have included stainless steel and Inconel for some time. I had some sintered parts made for my Sprite NGV mould 5 years ago the material I chose was bronze. The cost of sintering is very high and has not come down over the last 5 years, I had a quote recently. It is not a cost effective way to make turbine parts. The main snag is that the finish is a rough finish and needs polishing or machining.

People get very carried away with the technology but it will only be really useful when the costs come right down similar to machining parts and the quality of the surface finish improves.

John