GKN Aerospace has signed a multi-million pound, long-term agreement (LTA) with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) to supply Low-Pressure Compressor (LPC) Vanes for the PW1100G-JM and PW1400G-JM PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ (GTF) engines. This contract covers the planned production period for this programme to 2027.
Manufacture of these compressor parts takes place at the company’s Aerospace Engine Systems (AES) facilities in Connecticut, USA which is equipped to manufacture these aluminium and titanium parts using unique, innovative manufacturing techniques to the rigorous standards and tight tolerances required - and to meet the challenging programme ramp-up schedule to full production.
KHI low-pressure compressor vanes
Hidenori Imaoka, Senior Manager Procurement Department of Gas Turbine Division KHI comments: "We are pleased to complete yet another long-term agreement with GKN Aerospace covering these key low-pressure compressor components for the PW1100G-JM and PW1400G engine programs. This agreement allows the companies to continue to work closely together over the long term to extend the support we offer our customers. The agreement also allows KHI to draw on GKN Aerospace’s technological expertise and track record in this area to minimise both risk and cost on these key programs.”
Michael Dill, VP & GM for GKN Aerospace Engine Systems North America, said: “This agreement builds our current strong relationship with KHI even stronger and establishes GKN Aerospace capabilities in the Japanese market which is an important and growing market for us. For this important agreement, we have the full material and machining responsibility for a certain share of the engine program volumes and we have made investments in state of the art, highly automated equipment to supply these high volume parts. For each GTF engine, it’s over 300 LPC Vanes to be delivered from GKN Aerospace”. We are already closely involved with Pratt & Whitney’s GTF engine programmes and are a Risk and Revenue Sharing Partner (RRSP) on both these engines. As a result, we are able to supply KHI from a sound base of proven technology and certified parts which lower any risk, streamlines development and contains costs - and with all our processes, technologies and manufacturing skills based in-house, we can also meet demanding OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) production schedules.”
GKN Aerospace is a risk and revenue sharing collaborator (RRSP) directly with Pratt & Whitney. GKN has design and production responsibility for the intermediate compressor cases and the turbine exhaust cases for the entire Geared Turbofan family: PW1100G-JM, PW1400G-JM, PW1200G, PW1500G, PW1700G and PW1900G. In addition, GKN produces a number of other metallic and composite parts which are included in individual RRSP agreements.