- Australian Nic Adams has won fourth place in GE's global 3D Printing Design Quest and is the only Australian among the eight winners.
- Eight winners selected from nearly 700 entries across 56 countries
- Through open collaboration, bracket design modifications improve fuel and cost savings.
GE (NYSE: GE) today announced eight winners of its 3D Printing Design Quest, which challenged innovators to redesign loading brackets found on jet engines using 3D printing. The redesigned brackets reduce engine weight and fuel consumption.
Sydney local, Nic Adams, won fourth place in the Quest with a design that reduces the weight of jet loading brackets by 80.4 per cent. He achieved this by minimising sharp corners and using a hollow structure to best distribute material and stress.
Mr Adams is a Drummoyne-based engineer, encouraged to enter because of the opportunity to work with GE to advance his designs through modern manufacturing techniques. Mr Adams has had experience with manufacturing techniques previously, having worked on a pathology lab automation system in a Sydney hospital featuring robotic handling and analysis of hundreds of test tubes per day.
First place was won by M Arie Kurniawan of Indonesia, who collected a US$7,000 prize. The balance of the US$20,000 prize pool will be awarded to the finalists capturing second through eighth place.
The top ten bracket designs were additively manufactured at GE Aviation's additive manufacturing facility in Cincinnati and subjected to rigorous load testing, at GE's Global Research Center in Niskayuna in the US. Testing parts to failure was performed to ensure the winning designs met the highest quality and performance criteria. Loading brackets on jet engines play a critical role: they must support the weight of the engine during handling without breaking or warping.
GE Executive Director of Global Innovation Steve Liguori said: "At GE, we know innovation can come from anywhere. This challenge tapped into the ingenuity of the GrabCAD community to unleash new solutions to tomorrow's challenges using additive manufacturing. By applying GE's scale and expertise to open innovation, we can continue to grow the ecosystem of designers, engineers, materials scientists, and other partners to redefine the industry and drive real results for our customers."
GE and GrabCAD, working closely with digital strategy firm Undercurrent, launched the Design Quest in June 2013, drawing a record number of entries via GrabCAD's community of engineers and designers, with nearly 700 entries from 56 countries.
Hardi Meybaum, CEO of GrabCAD said: "Our Community really responded to this real-world engineering challenge from GE. There were an extraordinary number of submissions from around the world because engineers want the chance to design something that may make it into production and solve a real problem. GE's Jet Engine Bracket Design Challenge exceeded expectations and shows its commitment to seeking innovation through open engineering and collaboration. It's the way of the future, and we love that it's happening on our platform."
Phase II winners include:
1st Prize Winner- US$7,000 cash
- M Arie Kurniawan, based in Indonesia.
2nd Prize - US$5,000 cash
- Thomas Johansson, Ph.D, based in Sweden.
3rd Prize - US$3,000 cash
- Sebastien Vavassori, based in the United Kingdom.
4th -8th Prize US$1,000 cash each
- Nic Adams, based in Australia.
- Fidel Chirtes, based in Romania.
- Mandli Peter, based in Hungary.
- Andreas Anedda, based in Italy.
- Piotr Mikulski, based in Poland.
To view the additively manufactured brackets click here. For more information about GE Open Innovation visit http://www.ge.com/about-us/openinnovation and join our Google+ Hangout: Open Innovation and the Maker Community on Friday, December 13th at 11:30 AM EST.