GE Aviation Invests in 5 M Line Metal Additive Production Systems

GE Aviation is acquiring five GE Additive Concept Laser M Line systems. The first four M Line systems will be installed at GE Aviation’s Additive Technology Center (ATC) in West Chester, Ohio, during 2022. A fifth M Line system will be installed at Avio Aero’s Turin site in Italy to support serial production of additive components for the GE Catalyst turboprop engine during 2022.

“Our goal is to realize the aviation additive industry’s first automation-ready production environment,” says Benito Trevino, general manager, additive integrated product team at GE Aviation. “Once installed, we envisage that our multimachine approach, with the M Line platform at the heart of production, will help us reduce our lead and print times by over 50%.”

The company says the M Line is an advanced, industrialized production system which is well-suited for experienced metal additive users that have started to scale production volumes. Its stitching capability is said to enable customers with large part size demand to increase productivity and reduce cost for additive production.

The M Line is also said to offer a new type of machine architecture which delivers modularity, innovation and automation, enabling economical series production on an industrial scale. The system delivers this by decoupling the machine units used for part production and for setup and dismantling processes. These tasks can now be carried out in parallel and physically separated from one another in order to meet high environmental, health and safety standards.

Throughout the M Line’s three-year maturation phase, GE Additive teams have worked collaboratively with GE Aviation and a small group of other aerospace and medical sector customers who are already in serial additive production to beta test the M Line system.

“The time and work we have collectively invested with our GE Additive colleagues to define, shape and then iron out the specification and functionality of the M Line means we now have a scalable solution that can build large components in a high-volume production environment, while meeting our cost entitlement goals,” says Chris Philp, site leader for GE Aviation’s ATC.