GE Aerospace announced in September that it would acquire its turbine blade supplier for $11.75bn, or £8.78bn, in a move described as an effort to secure supply of these critical aircraft engine components. The acquisition underscores intensifying competition for access to single crystal turbine blades, one of the world's most sophisticated manufacturing processes. Only a handful of companies globally can produce these blades, and the technology has been perfected end-to-end in just five countries, including the US and UK. Rolls-Royce, GE and France's Safran are among the few firms that have mastered the process.
Single crystal turbine blades are grown rather than cut from their material, a manufacturing technique perfected during the 1960s. Hundreds of these blades sit inside jet engines, where they withstand enormous mechanical stresses and temperatures exceeding 1,500C. The process involves taking a molten metal alloy, casting it into blade shape, and cooling it extremely carefully over hours so that a single crystal of metal forms rather than many small grains. Ben Fifoot, a manufacturing engineer at Rolls-Royce, which makes turbine blades in the UK, describes the process as "about as complicated as manufacturing gets". Rolls-Royce said in March that it would invest more than £19m in its Rotherham blade casting facility.
The blades are engineered to maximise efficiency and durability. Special ceramic coatings protect them from extreme temperatures, while tiny channels cast into each blade allow cooler air to flow through, creating a protective film during engine operation. Manufacturers are also working to reduce blade weight, which allows engines to run more efficiently using less fuel and to spin faster and hotter. Blades made by Rolls-Royce power aircraft engines including the Trent XWB-84, which powers the Airbus A350-900, and the Trent 1000 XE, for the Boeing 787.
China is pursuing efforts to become only the sixth country to master the entire technology chain for single crystal blade casting. A report in May quoted one engineer at the AECC Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials claiming that China now had a single crystal alloy "superior to or equivalent to the second-generation single-crystal superalloys widely used in Europe and the US", and that it costs less to make. However, aviation industry writer and consultant Bill Sweetman says the West has a "huge advantage" given that the majority of commercial airliner production happens there, and Western manufacturers have lengthy safety records. Sweetman notes that China must compete on practically every aspect of aircraft manufacturing to make serious inroads.
Aircraft demand is currently high and straining supply chains across the industry. Paul Withey, at the University of Birmingham and formerly of Rolls-Royce, suggests that demand could grow higher still if one of the two main aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing, launches a new short-haul plane within the next few years, forcing the other to follow suit to remain competitive. "There'll be a bun fight," Withey says, over who gets to supply the engines and the single crystal turbine blades.
For UK-based aerospace businesses and their supply chain partners, the surge in turbine blade investment and demand presents both opportunities for growth and intensifying global competition on cost and innovation.