Engineers have 3D printed jet engines before, but not until recently have they printed an engine that actually works. Having achieved 33,000 RPM, the engine is only 1 ft. long and 8 in. in diameter.
It's not a commercial aircraft engine; engineers modified the much simpler design of an RC model plane engine with 3D printing in mind.
The key behind the engine’s design was the teams focus on additive manufacturing techniques. With Direct Metal Laser Melting (DMLM), engineers used lasers to fuse thin layers of metal on top of each other to form the parts. The technique allowed for more complex and efficient parts with less material waste.
Once each part was printed, the engine was assembled by hand and mounted inside a test cell usually used for full-scale engines.
You can view the tests in the video below.
As the project was not intended for production, the team set out to experiment to see if it was possible to design an engine with only additive manufactured parts.
"There are really a lot of benefits to building things through additive," says Matt Benvie, spokesman for GE Aviation. "You get speed because there’s less need for tooling and you go right from a model or idea to making a part. You can also get geometries that just can’t be made any other way."
The GE team of engineers are based out of GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center outside Cincinnati. Testing for the miniature engine was performed at GE Aviation headquarters in Evendale, OH.What implications can you see for additive manufacturing after watching the video above?
Let us know in the comments below.