FARNBOROUGH, England July 14, 2008 CFM International has completed certification of the advanced CFM56 Tech Insertion compressor upgrade kit, technology that will provide operators of mature CFM56-7B and CFM56-5B engines with up to 1 percent lower fuel consumption along with lower maintenance costs.
CFM56 Tech Insertion is a product of CFM International (CFM), a 50/50 joint company of Snecma (Safran Group) and General Electric Company. CFM is the world's leading manufacturing of commercial aircraft engines and has produced more than 18,500 engines to date.
In addition to the compressor kit, CFM also offers a full Tech Insertion core upgrade, as well as high- and low-pressure turbine hardware, for the more than 7,250 CFM56-5B and CFM56-7B engines that were delivered prior to the production shift in 2007. The new hardware is installed during a regular shop visit. High-pressure turbine hardware has been available since July 2007 and incorporation has grown steadily. In 2008, approximately 80 percent of the spare parts orders for CFM56-5B & -7B engines have been for the Tech Insertion hardware.
CFM completed an exhaustive series of tests on eight different development engines as part of the Tech Insertion engine and upgrade certification program. These engines underwent icing tests, compressor and turbine blade stress tests, hail ingestion, emissions, over-temperature tests, a 150-hour block test, and a 65-hour flight test program on GE's modified 747 flying testbed. Eleven additional engines completed a combined total of 1,230 hours of flight tests on Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. Overall, Tech Insertion engines logged at total of more than 3,650 hours and 17,300 cycles of development, endurance, and full engine and upgrade certification testing.
The new production configuration had a highly successful entry into service in 2007 on both the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families. To date, more than 1,350 Tech Insertions engines have been delivered and the fleet has logged more than 1.6 million flight hours and 900,000 flight cycles without a single engine-related incident.
Over the engine's life cycle, CFM56 Tech Insertion will provide operators up to 1 percent better specific fuel consumption, which translates to better fuel burn and with longer time on wing through an equivalent 15 - 20° C additional exhaust gas temperature margin; between 5 and 15% percent lower maintenance costs (depending on the thrust rating) through enhanced durability. The engine also meets the new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Committee of Aviation Environmental Protection standards (CAEP /6) that took effect in early 2008. These benefits are achieved through improvements to the high-pressure compressor, the combustor, and the high- and low-pressure turbines. The emissions benefit can only be realized by incorporating the full Tech Insertion core upgrade (compressor, combustor, turbine).