GKN Aerospace signs new USD300m engine structures agreement

GKN Aerospace has signed a 5 year Long Term Agreement (LTA) with GE Aviation covering a wide range of new and existing flight critical aluminium and titanium components for GE's range of commercial and military engines.

This includes items for: the pioneering GEnx-1B engine; the highly successful CFM56 engines produced by CFM, a 50/50 joint company of Snecma (SafranGroup) and General Electric Company; the GP7200 engines produced by The Engine Alliance, a 50/50 joint venture of General Electric and Pratt and Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Deliveries are already underway and will continue through to the end of 2014. Work on the manufacture and finishing of these products will take place in the Company's New England and Cincinnati operations in the USA.

Mike Beck, President and CEO, Engine Products, GKN Aerospace comments: "This significant new agreement with GE Aviation is a mark of the success of our commitment to continuous improvement across our entire global business. More specifically it is another success for our excellent Electro-Chemical Machining (ECM) operation, where we are aiming for significant business growth in the coming years."

A number of these parts will be manufactured using ECM which offers critical benefits for the aero-engine in its capacity to finish complex parts to a high standard, reduce parts count, lower engine weight and improve the structural integrity and efficiency of the engine.

Beck continues: "Some years ago GKN Aerospace perceived the real potential of the ECM process and we have now made a significant investment in this capability, extending our expertise so that today we have a global market lead."

GKN Aerospace supplies all the major western aero-engine primes, providing many of the more complex and specialised metal and composite items for both the cold and hot sections of the engine. As one example, GKN Aerospace developed and is supplying the world's first all-composite fan containment case for GE's GEnx engine.