First Test Run Of “3-D Printed”GE Engine

GE made the first test run of its remarkably inventively named Advanced Turboprop engine last week, and it was a success. The mainstream public imagines that manufacturers will be able to print entire engines---flip a switch, to go lunch, and when you come back, there's an engine---but the truth is, if anything, more remarkable than that. The GE engine, the company claims, makes use of additive processing (essentially, 3-D printing with metal and to remarkably fine tolerances) to cut down parts count tremendously. The new engine has 15 percent fewer parts than comparable turboprop engines and many of those parts eliminate assemblies composed of multiple parts. Many of those assemblies exist as a collection of parts only because of the fact that before additive manufacturing, there was no other way to make them.