Honda Aircraft Engine R&D Center looks to accelerate aerospace application development
July 17, 2018
GE Additive will work with Honda’s Aircraft R&D Center in Japan (Image of a Honda-Jet, Courtesy Honda)
GE Additive has reported its first AddWorksTM additive consulting services engagement in Japan, following an agreement with Honda R&D Co., Ltd, Aircraft Engine R&D Center announced at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow. It was said that the agreement aims to further Honda Aircraft Engine R&D Group’s additive application development for its future generation aircraft engines.
GE Additive’s AddWorks consultants help determine whether AM will benefit the organisation economically, as well as from a performance perspective. The AddWorks team’s expertise is rooted in GE’s experience with Additive Manufacturing, which has helped produce additive parts for aerospace systems including CFM International’s LEAP aircraft engines and the GE Catalyst™ advanced turboprop engine.
GE and Honda’s partnership in the aviation industry spans over a decade. Having established GE Honda Aero Engines LLC – a joint venture between GE Aviation and Honda Aero in 2004 – the two companies developed the GE Honda HF120 jet engine used on light business jet aircraft such as HondaJet. GE Additive added that it hopes the AddWorks consulting services will lead to enhancements of the existing partnership between the two companies, and further the adoption of Additive Manufacturing in the aerospace industry.
“We are pleased that Honda Aircraft Engine R&D Center has selected GE Additive to be its vendor in providing AddWorks consulting services to further the use of this transformative technology in its future generation aircraft engines. We are in the best position to share our learnings from our own additive journey, having started from prototyping to successfully applying it to mass production for aviation engine parts,” stated Thomas Pang, Japan Director of GE Additive.
GE Additive established its operations in Japan January 2018 and announced the availability of commercial offerings in June this year as part of its plans to be a $1 billion business by 2020, with a strategy to sell 10,000 machines by 2026. GE Additive in Japan will sell Concept Laser and Arcam EBM additive machines as well as materials directly and via local resellers to Japan-based customers with a focus on key industries, including aerospace, automotive, heavy industry and others.
https://global.honda/innovation/technology/RandD/locations/wako-e.html
