BRISTOL, RI-Tri-Mack Plastics Manufacturing Corp., a manufacturer of high-performance engineered components, has been given General Electric Aviation’s Supplier Quality Awareness Award. Tri-Mack is the first supplier selected for the new award, which recognizes high standards for productivity and quality.

Tri-Mack has been working closely with GE Aviation (formerly GE Aircraft Engines) for more than 30 years to ensure quality and productivity from product development through day-to-day production. This award is in recognition of Tri-Mack’s services and for Tri-Mack’s achievements in supplying parts for the GEnx-1b, a next-generation turbofan engine. The GEnx-1b incorporates a new technology for oil cooling that uses a surface flow cooler on the outer flow path of the aft fan case. This cooling innovation requires tough, lightweight composite fairings, for which Tri-Mack manufactured six different injection-molded parts in extremely complex mold tooling on a very accelerated schedule.

To reduce the lead time, Tri-Mack’s engineering staff worked concurrently with GE on the GENx-1b to optimize part designs for producibility and overall cost-effectiveness. Tri-Mack’s tool design for the project used proprietary hand loads to mold complex geometry, including molded in-place metal inserts. The company also employed advanced selective laser sintering technology in its strategy to save time in the development process. During the project, the engineering tool room and production staff worked around-the-clock to create hundreds of components in record time.

“We are very proud to receive this award,” says William Kain, vice president of operations at Tri-Mack. “Like GE Aviation, we strive every day to meet or beat all of our customers’ requirements with high-quality, high-performance materials, processes, and products. An award like this is confirmation that we are reaching our goals.”

The plaque presented to Tri-Mack with the award states, “GE Aircraft Engines’ customers are constantly demanding a high quality product at an affordable price. This translates into GE Aircraft Engines’ focus on productivity and quality as the corner-stones of its operating strategy. We’ve asked our suppliers to meet continually rising standards for productivity and quality. This acknowledgement award is in recognition of your support and performance.” The presentation was held at the GE Aircraft Engines facility in Evendale, OH.