Tri-Mack wins GE Aviation Quality Award

When Tri-Mack Plastics Manufacturing Corp. (Bristol, RI) was established 30 years ago, it began life by making friction-wear plastic parts for aircraft engines. Proving that experience pays, Tri-Mack was just honored with General Electric Aviation's Supplier Quality Award for contributions to GE's next-generation turbofan engine.

The first-of-its-kind presentation took place at the GE Aviation aircraft engine facility in Evendale, OH. Specifically, the award recognizes Tri-Mack's work in realizing the new oil cooling technology used in the GEnx-1b engine. The technology employs a surface flow cooler on the outer flow path of the aft fan case that requires tough but lightweight composite fairings, for which Tri-Mack made six different molded parts.

Tri-Mack and GE employed concurrent engineering to reduce lead-time while optimizing part designs for manufacturing and overall cost-effectiveness. Tri-Mack used advanced selective laser sintering as part of its lead-time-compression strategy, as well as round-the-clock tool engineering and production to make hundreds of components in what it terms record time.

Tri-Mack VP of operations William Kain stated that the company is very proud of the recognition. "An award like this is confirmation that we are reaching our goals."