GE Aviation Opens New Composites Manufacturing Facility

GE Aviation have opened its second aviation composites facility in Mississippi, the new 340,000-square-foot facility will be referred to as GE Aviation’s Ellisville Composites facility and will manufacture and assemble new composite aerospace components.

GE Aviation already employs more than 450 people at a factory near Batesville in northwest Mississippi which opened in 2008 and is responsable for the assembly of large front fans for jet engines as well as the production of composite components. With the opening of Ellisville, GE Aviation will add up to 40 jobs in 2013 with up to 200 more by 2017

Aided by the Mississippi Polymer Institute at The University of Southern Mississippi and The Advanced Technology Center at Jones County Junior College, Ellisville employees are being trained in advanced manufacturing processes.

[rssless][/rssless]

The facility will produce composite parts for two new engine programs: the best-selling LEAP jet engine being developed by CFM, a joint company of GE and Snecma (SAFRAN) of France and GE’s new Passport jet engine. Ellisville will manufacture fan platforms (installed between the engine’s front fan blades) for the LEAP-1A and the LEAP-1C, which will power Airbus’s A320neo and COMAC’S C919 respectively. Ellisville will also manufacture the inlet for the Passport engine which was selected by Bombardier to power the Global 7000 and Global 8000 business jets. The inlet is a single-piece component that is located in the front of the Nexcelle nacelle system and directs airflow into the engine.

In addition to jet engine components, Ellisville will manufacture the transcowl, a component of the thrust reverser, which is located in the rear of the nacelle for Airbus’s A320neo. The specific type of composite material that will be made at Ellisville is known as polymer matrix composites. PMCs are made of carbon fibre fabric and polymer resin and fabricated by using advanced technology in manufacturing processes and equipment.

[rssless]


[connections id=’230′]
[/rssless]