As pressure grows to raise already peak production rates for single-aisle aircraft, CFM International has decided to roll out two major upgrades to the production system for the Leap engine series.
The joint venture of GE Aviation and Snecma will automate the quality inspection process and integrate a final assembly process that includes both pulsed and articulated features, says Jean-Paul Ebanga, CFM chief executive, speaking to the ISTAT conference on 9 March.
“We are facing a massive production ramp and we have to deal with that successfully,” Ebanga says.
As the sole source supplier for the Boeing 737 Max and the Comac C919 and a competitive option on the Airbus A320neo, the three versions of the Leap-1 series have already attracted an order for 8,600 engines.
Airbus and Boeing have already committed to increase production on the A320neo to 50 per month and on the 737 Max to 52 per month within the next two years, pushing CFM’s annual output 1,500 engines today to about 1,800 by 2020, Ebanga says, noting that that ramp up includes a transition from the CFM56 series to the Leap series over that time period.
At the same time, Airbus and Boeing are considering even further increases in production, with Airbus studying a ramp up to 60 A320neos per month and Boeing acknowledging potential capacity to build as many 63 737 Max aircraft per month.
“We have our best customers who are asking us to go higher and faster,” Ebanga says.
CFM previously announced plans to expand production capacity by investing $800 million to add more than 1.5 million square feet of manufacturing space at seven major new facilities unveiled within the last three years.
The next step CFM is taking is to improve how it assembles and inspects engines as it transitions to the Leap series, Ebanga says. In addition to modifying the assembly process, optical-based inspection machines will replace “human quality control activities,” Ebanga says.
With more than 70% of the single-aisle engine backlog, CFM is most affected by any changes in production rate by Airbus, Boeing and Comac.
Pratt & Whitney supplies the PW1100G-JM engine for the A320neo family, as well as similar geared turbofans for several other platforms, including the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, Bombardier CSeries, Irkut MC-21 and Embraer E-Jet E2.
“We’re partnering with our supply base, partnering with our logistics teams,” says Rick Deurloo, P&W vice-president of sales and marketing. “I can tell you right now we are ready for this ramp up. No question.”
Ebanga calls the production ramp over the next five years the key issue facing the industry, suggesting that CFM may wait to match a 2% fuel efficiency improvement announced by P&W last year until the ramp up is addressed.
“We have this huge ramp up we never saw before. We have to deal with that. We have to successfully deliver all those engines. We are focusing on the main issue one at a time. There will be a time to upgrade our engines and we will do it,” he says.
CFM has completed more than half of the certification testing on the Leap-1A engine for the A320neo, Ebanga says. That version of the re-engined aircraft is due to enter service in 2016, following the introduction of the PW1100G-JM-powered A320neo in the fourth quarter.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
