Aerospace giant GE Aviation is on the final phase to create its most vertically integrated, new material system ever introduced in the United States – and facilities in Alabama will play a major role.
By 2020, GE Aviation is projected to have more than 750 U.S. employees dedicated to its advanced ceramic matrix composites (CMC) industry, which a significant share of them in Alabama. Ultra-lightweight CMC parts are poised to revolutionize aerospace manufacturing.
In just 10 years, GE Aviation has spent more than $1.5 billion to bring advanced CMC technology to market. Beyond GE’s Global Research Center in New York, this investment includes four production facilities:
- A CMC laboratory in Ohio to develop CMC production designs.
- A low-rate production facility in Delaware for CMC raw material and components.
- A full-rate production facility in North Carolina to mass-produce CMCs, including the static turbine shrouds flying in new high-efficiency LEAP jet engine.
- Now, GE Aviation is constructing the last significant piece of the CMCs industrialization puzzle – a full-rate production raw material facility in Huntsville.
Once fully operational, the Alabama plant complex will produce up to 20 metric tons (20,000 kilograms) of CMC material a year. One CFM LEAP engine uses approximately 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of CMC material.
‘GREAT PROGRESS’
“There is a lot of excitement surrounding the Huntsville facility.”
GE Aviation is investing more than $200 million to construct two factories on 100 acres in the Limestone County portion of Huntsville. One plant will mass produce silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic fiber, the first high-volume production operation in the United States.
Supported by $21.9 million in funding from the U.S. Air Force Research Lab Title III Office, this plant will dramatically increase U.S. capability to produce SiC ceramic fiber capable of withstanding temperatures of 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The adjacent GE factory on the same campus will use the SiC ceramic fiber to make unidirectional CMC prepreg necessary to fabricate the CMC components.
“We continue to make great progress,” Huntsville site leader Jon Lyford said. “The engineering and construction teams are on track to start placing process equipment by October. The CMC prepreg facility commissioning will be complete in the summer of 2018. The CMC fiber facility commissioning remains targeted for the spring of 2019.”
The GE Aviation Huntsville team is 24 employees but growing rapidly. Once fully operational, the Huntsville facilities will employ up to 300 people.
“There is a lot of excitement surrounding the Huntsville facility,” CMC Senior Production Manager Brian Dix said. “We had people that wanted to sign up to work at the high-volume facility before we even knew where it was going to be located. That speaks volumes of the excitement building here.”
LEADING EDGE
GE officials announced plans for the Alabama facilities in October 2015.
At the time, they said the Huntsville site was selected based on its location, the available workforce, the potential for university partnerships, and infrastructure costs.
Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, said GE Aviation’s work in Alabama puts the state at the leading edge in new aerospace technologies.
“GE Aviation’s plan to mass produce the raw material for ceramic jet engine components in Huntsville positions Alabama for a more significant role in that supply chain at a time when the Southeastern aerospace corridor is growing rapidly,” he said.
GE Aviation already has a growing presence in Alabama.
The company operates a 300,000-square-foot facility that produces a fuel nozzle using breakthrough additive manufacturing technology. The nozzle is the first 3-D printed jet engine component to be produced in high volumes by GE Aviation, a pioneer in the field.
MAJOR SAVINGS
The only other large-scale SiC ceramic fiber factory is operated by NGS Advanced Fibers Co. in Japan. Formed in 2012, NGS is a joint company of Nippon Carbon, GE and French aerospace giant Safran. The U.S. SiC fiber plant will license fiber-producing technology from NGS Advanced Fibers Co.
The SiC fiber plant in Huntsville will complement the growing capacity at NGS, which is undergoing an expansion.
Advanced Silicon Carbide Fiber, a GE Aviation JV, will sell fiber manufactured in Huntsville to the Department of Defense, GE businesses, Safran and other external customers. The NGS partners will have the opportunity to become equity partners in the Huntsville plant.
CMCs in the engine can translate into millions of dollars of annual savings for airline fleets.
A 1 percent reduction in fuel consumption can save more than $1 million a year for commercial air carriers. This next-generation CMC material technology being produced by GE Aviation will improve fuel efficiency at 1 to 2 percent.
