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.

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

Always with a focus on delivering the highest specification, this phase has resulted in more than 300 design improvements with additional safety and software features incorporated into the system, as customers’ needs and requirements have changed in response to the more rigorous demands of customers aiming to move into additive serial production.
Continuous improvement and input from GE Aviation informed the most critical and fundamental change to the system – an increase to the build envelope by 54% to 500 mm x 500 mm x 400 mm – to enable GE Aviation’s progression to the serial production of larger additive parts.

Over the past 18 months, attention has shifted to materials development for aerospace applications with some of the highest requirements in the industry for part quality in terms of material properties, as well as build-to-build and machine-to-machine stability.
GE Additive and GE Aviation ATC teams have partnered to accelerate locking down the materials parameters for aluminum, cobalt-chrome and nickel alloy 718.

Once installed at the GE Aviation ATC, two M Line systems will be dedicated to aluminum alloy, and one each of the two other systems to cobalt chrome and nickel alloy 718, adding additional manufacturing capacity to GE Aviation’s existing additive infrastructure in its state-of-the-art development facility.