GE Aviation to mass produce silicon carbide materials

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- GE Aviation says it is building plants in Alabama to produce silicon carbide materials to make ceramic matrix composite components and gas turbines.

One of the plants, a ceramic fiber plant, will be built with the help of $29.9 million in funding from the U.S. Air Force Research Lab Title III Office.

"Establishing the new GE factories in Alabama is a very significant step in developing the supply chain we need in order to produce CMC components in large volume," said Correa, vice president, CMC Program, GE Aviation.

The plants are being built on 100 acres adjacent to GE Aviation's present facility in Huntsville. Construction will begin next year and will be completed in the first half of 2018, when production will begin.

One plant will produce silicon carbide ceramic fiber for unidirectional CMC tape, necessary for CMC components.

GE Aviation called thee use of lightweight, heat-resistant CMCs in the hot section of GE jet engines a technological breakthrough. The CMCs are one-third the density of metal alloys and their high-temperature properties enhance engine performance, durability, and fuel economy.

CMCs are also more heat resistant than metal alloys.

"For more than 20 years, scientists at GE's Global Research Centers and GE's industrial businesses have worked to develop CMCs for commercial applications," the company said. "The best-selling LEAP engine, being developed by CFM International, the 50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma (Safran) of France, is the first commercial jet engine to use CMCs in the high-pressure turbine section.

The SiC ceramic fibers plant will license fiber-producing technology from NGS Advanced Fibers Co. in Japan, a joint company formed in 2012 with Japan's Nippon Carbon, GE and Herakles Safran France.