GKN Aerospace sees additive as engine for growth with more products in the pipeline

UK-headquartered firm targets additional applications for the manufacturing technology beyond initial work with Pratt & Whitney.

GKN Aerospace is pressing ahead with plans to insert more structural parts produced through additive manufacturing into in-service engines following the success of the fan case mount ring (FCMR) it builds for certain Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans.

Since qualifying the first additively produced FCMR in 2023, GKN has now delivered over 600 examples of the component, says chief technology officer Russ Dunn. These equip the PW1500G for the Airbus A220 and PW1900G for the Embraer 190/195-E2; full-rate production of the additive part was achieved in 2025.

But with its combined additive production and design capabilities seen by the UK-headquartered firm as a key differentiator, it is working to expand the technology onto other engine programmes and parts, particularly those where it holds the design authority.

Briefing journalists in London on 30 April, Dunn said GKN had an “incredibly long, complex roadmap of different products” it aims to bring to market, both those similar to the FCMR and “even slightly more complex structures”.

Beyond the FCMR, he identifies inner and outer ring structures which are “very much in progress of being certified” and also split engine cases where “we have a product there being certified as we speak”.

Production is largely through laser metal deposition by wire (LMD-W), or using that technology to add features to forgings or castings.

Dunn declines to identify customers for the technology or specific components. However, GKN’s annual report, published in March, says the geared turbofan FCMR is the “first of many planned technology insertions being developed with Pratt & Whitney, GE Aerospace and Rolls-Royce”.

In the case of GE, GKN is developing “additive fabrication on key insertion activities” for the GEnx that powers the Boeing 787, plus the in-development GE9X for the 777X programme, with the work including “the production of a full-size demonstrator”.

Pointing to a slide accompanying the presentation which references the FCMR, outlet guide vane inner ring and engine split case, he adds: “There are some products on this page that are very much aligned to that product.”

GKN is also developing a “very large structure” with GE, he says, without specifying the component. This combines powder bed production – another additive manufacturing method – with “other technology” to build the complete part.

But GKN’s annual report discloses further progress with additive manufacturing, last year producing a “large-scale titanium engine case” for the RISE open-fan technology demonstrator being developed by GE and Safran Aircraft Engines through their CFM International joint venture.

GKN bills the RISE engine case as the “largest-ever all-additive part”, which Dunn says was a little under 2m (6.5ft) in diameter.

Development and certification of the initial FCMR took around seven years from “the very, very beginning” to service entry, “because it had never been done [before] in the industry”.

However, Dunn is confident that future products can be brought to market much faster as regulators and engine OEMs become more comfortable with the processes involved.

“We are now talking about maybe a a couple of years rather than seven,” he says.

Critical to that acceleration is building up a pool of data that demonstrates that the process delivers consistent results.

Dunn notes that GKN recently built the same component at its sites in Sweden, the United States and UK “with some reasonably different steps in the process”. Back-to-back testing showed that the properties obtained “came out to within 1% [with] a really, really low level of variation.”

It is following a similar path to develop components built through the powder bed process, although “we have found the steps to certification are a bit more complex”.

An initial application for the technology is to produce turbine struts on the LM2500 industrial gas engine – a relative of the legacy International Aero Engines V2500 narrowbody powerplant.

“By certifying that, we then build up a body of evidence that enables us then to build the confidence of the customer and airworthiness authorities, and we then transition that to the flying engine equivalent.”

However, that does not mean GKN is solely focused on the V2500, which now only being produced in tiny quantities, largely for the Embraer KC-390 military airlifter.

“It is giving us the path and evidence that we can then build into equivalent type engine structures,” says Dunn.

In addition to new parts, GKN also sees strong demand to use additive manufacturing for component repair, reducing the amount of parts sent to scrap and easing supply chain pressure.