Pratt & Whitney is increasingly turning to additive manufacturing as part of its maintenance processes to repair critical components of GTF engines more efficiently. The new process was developed by the company’s North American Technology Accelerator in Jupiter, Florida, in collaboration with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology and the RTX Research Center. It is based on Directed Energy Deposition (DED), a powder-based 3D printing process in which metal materials are applied directly to damaged areas and fused at the same time.
The additive repair replaces several work steps of conventional methods, particularly in the area of structural housing components. According to the manufacturer, the elimination of reclamping processes and thermal post-treatments reduces the overall processing time by more than 60 percent. This enables components to be made available again more quickly in the global GTF MRO network, which currently comprises 20 repair locations on four continents.
“A more agile, additive repair process allows us to better serve our customers by improving turnaround time, while reducing tooling costs, complexity and set up,” said Kevin Kirkpatrick, vice president of Aftermarket Operations at Pratt & Whitney. “At the same time, it reduces our dependency on current material supply constraints. Additive technology has the potential to support a range of critical GTF part repairs and we’re actively working to explore additional opportunities for implementation.”
In addition to the applications already developed, Pratt & Whitney plans to expand the technology to other engine components such as compressor parts, fan housings and blades. At the same time, digital inspection processes, adaptive machining and automated coatings are being further developed. The aim is to make additive maintenance an integral part of the long-term EngineWise service architecture. Over the next five years, the company expects to save and recover around 100 million US dollars worth of components through additive repair methods.
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