CFM International's advanced CFM56 Tech Insertion configuration is providing more than 200 operators worldwide with lower fuel consumption, longer on-wing life, lower maintenance costs, and lower emissions.
Through October 2009, nearly 3,050 Tech Insertions engines had been delivered and the fleet has logged more than 10 million flight hours and 6 million flight cycles. CFM Tech Insertion became the production configuration for all CFM56-7B and CFM56-5B engines and entered service on the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft families in 2007.
In 2008, CFM certified the advanced compressor upgrade kit. The company 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 were for the Tech Insertion hardware.
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 degrees 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).
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.
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 19,500 engines to date.