5B engines in the Tech Insertion configuration was certified on schedule on the Airbus A320 family in September 2007 and entered service with Air One of Italy in October.
CFM International (CFM) is a 50/50 joint company between Snecma (Safran Group) and General Electric Company. CFM is the world's leading aircraft engine manufacturer, with nearly 17,600 engines delivered to date.
Tech Insertion is the production standard for the CFM56-7B and CFM56-5B. Both engines were jointly certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in 2006 and completed exhaustive flight test programs on the Boeing 737 (CFM56-7B) and Airbus A320 (CFM56-5B) aircraft. The CFM56-7B variant entered service with Lion Air in May of this year.
In 2008, CFM will offer a full core upgrade for the approximately 8,000 CFM56-5B and CFM56-7B engines currently in service, in addition to sub-kits for the high-pressure compressor and the high- and low-pressure turbines.
The CFM56 Tech Insertion program incorporates advanced technologies developed and validated as part of Project TECH56 to provide operators with lower maintenance costs. Improved analytic design tools developed as part of this program have enable CFM to further optimize the Tech Insertion combustor so that it will provide 25 percent lower NOx emissions, allowing the engine to meet the new International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Committee of Aviation Environmental Protection emissions standards (CAEP /6) scheduled to take effect in 2008. In addition, the engine's 1 percent improvement in fuel consumption will also lower CO2, reducing these emissions by 200 tons per aircraft per year.
Over the engine's life cycle, CFM56 Tech Insertion will also provide operators with longer time on wing through an equivalent 15 - 20° C additional exhaust gas temperature margin and will lower maintenance costs by between five and 12 percent, depending on the thrust rating, through enhanced durability. These benefits are achieved through improvements to the high-pressure compressor and the high- and low-pressure turbines. The new configuration is designated by a "/3" on the engine name place (i.e. CFM56-5B5/3)