GE runs firsts tests on 3D-printed micro turbine
 

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...urbine-412179/


GE Aviation has run a 3D-printed micro jet turbine up to 33,000rpm, marking the first known test of a jet engine built using additive manufacturing.

The project and test revealed on 7 May launched with a jet engine designed for the hobbyist, remote-controlled aircraft market, GE says in a video posted online on 7 May.

The company used EOS M270 machines and a direct metal laser melting process to build about a dozen major components, including a centrifugal compressor stage. Some additional machining and polishing work was required after the components emerged from the 3D printers. The materials included “high-strength, high-temperature alloys” that are usually unavailable to the hobbyist engine market, GE says.



Video

http://www.mmsonline.com/blog/post/v...-manufacturing

Love it... I have been forecasting these breakthroughs for the last 18 years of my involvement in the technology!
Great to see it :)

Fyi, here's the 2014 post on this...
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-j...ne-engine.html

Are they indicating that GE is getting into the hobby turbine market?

Iroincally enough, I beat GE at their own game. I actually designed and incorporated the first Electron Beam Melting component to be used on an aircraft engine (a GE Engine as a fact), and will actually fly on a vehicle (a very, very, bad ass vehicle).

Unfortunately it will not make me rich, nor famous, nor get me a better job nor buy me the EV5 valve that I really need right now. It is just ink on my 4 page CV.

And yes, the parts come out a lot worse than casting grade surface finish, so depending on the application there will need to be a lot of post forming finishing work, even some traditional machining may be required.

Love this stuff!

But, But, 33K Rpm is less than my Wren's Idle..........alll of them.........Come back and tell us about it when they get at least 120K out of it. Looks neat though........LOL

The parts that they show being printed are only the two side mounts with the GE log and something that goes over the front cover. They dont show the manufacture of any of the hot parts or any spinning parts. This is not to say they didnt do it ... just they didnt show it.

Also did you spot the assembly error at about 1:15 to 1:17. He tries putting the NGV over the already fitted turbine.

T

It's just a marketing tool. Most folks would believe that the whole thing is printed. Reality is, traditional methods like stamping and forming are essential for hot and high speed applications. EBM is great for casting grade parts, as it can reduce tooling costs significantly. But it is no substitution for 5 axis machining.....at least not yet.

Suppose this will be the standard... Both additive and substractive tech (3d printing and machining) in the same machine:


Would make a complete scale F-18 landing gear in a day, and one or two turbines in the weekend. :)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndx-amkf4qU

Pity they did not know this has been done years ago already. And they assembled the combustor the wrong way round....
SLS in super alloys is more than a decade old. We use EOS machines for printing titanium and the finish is good.
Most popular application is for printing injection mold inserts with cooling channels so efficient cycle times can be doubled.

I think the 33k is an error in the article and I have already fed this back to them.
I don't think it would self sustain at that rpm.
My guess is that it should read 133k.

Paul G

Actually the guy did not assemble the chamber in the engine the wrong way round.
If you look very carefully frame by frame this is all an illusion and a not very good one. At frame 1.16 - 1.17 you can see that the rear end of the chamber where the NGV fits in is in its correct place. However the outer wrapper has the large cooling holes cut at the front and the small ones that should be at the front are at the rear. The glow plug hole was made at the rear of the outer wrapper when you would expect it to be at the front. Indeed if you look at the video of the first run you will see the glow plug is in its correct place, so the alleged first run was with a different chamber.

My guess is that someone programmed the software incorrectly for the chamber and they did not have time to remake the parts. The fuel supply appears to be a single gas pipe welded into the rear of the case and it passes though the rear of the case in an unsealed hole.

There is a storage lack of heat and that indicates to me that this just had the engine spun up with the gas lit up for show. They then spun up to 33K with compressed air. There is just a whine from compressed air and no sound of combustion sound or heat.

John