GE’s existing R&D centre in Munich, Global Research – Europe
Last week the partners signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the carbon composites centre at the university’s campus in Garching, near Munich, Germany.
Automating the manufacture of carbon composites is the critical development that is required to bring this material into widespread use and open up new applications. The aim is to provide a dramatic improvement over current carbon composite manufacturing processes, paving the way for applications that are not practical or possible today, including the development of longer wind blades for increased wind capture, and stronger risers to enable high-pressure deep-sea oil exploration and production.
GE operations in Europe, such as GE Wind in Germany and the Netherlands, GE Aviation Systems in the UK, and GE Oil and Gas in Italy, Norway and the UK, are expected to benefit from the improvements in the manufacturing of carbon composites.
“We will be able to leverage the expertise and resources of both GE and the Technical University of Munich to further develop automated manufacturing of composites, to improve commercial products,” said Carlos Härtel, Managing Director of GE Global Research Europe. “This announcement also emphasises GE’s strong commitment to developing technology in Europe and marks five years of collaboration between the [university] and GE Global Research.”
The Centre will draw on research from GE Global Research carbon composites manufacturing lab, which opened in September 2007, and the university’s Lehrstuhl Carbon Composite Institute.
Composites comprised of carbon fibres and resins are stronger and lighter than the metals that they replace. This allows for new designs and efficiencies such as such as fuel savings. Composites are used in the fan blade of the GE90 jet engine, which was commercialised in the mid 1990s, and are used in the fan case of another engine, the GEnx. In both engines, the weight reduction has led to improved fuel economy and performance. In wind turbine blades the use of carbon composites is expected to result in weight savings of 30 per cent.
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