MTU Aero Engines opens a new production hall in Munich - world’s most modern turbine disk manufacturing

It’s 34 meters tall, has a total usable area of 14,000 square meters, and contains 12,500 tons of concrete and structural steel: in early July, MTU Aero Engines officially inaugurated its new manufacturing hall in Munich. The production facility is the tallest building at the site, and it is exceptional not just because of its construction. “With this building, we are opening the world’s most modern, automated manufacturing hall for turbine disks,” explained COO Dr Silke Maurer during the opening ceremony, which included around 150 guests. 

Among other things, the hall will be manufacturing low-pressure turbine disks for Geared Turbofan engines – currently 6,000 units a year, but in ten years the team hopes to reach the 12,000-unit mark. “Our work here is fully automated, and we are networking the lathes and milling machines in a unique way,” explained Munich’s head of production Stefan Hertling. And that’s not all: the new building also houses a state-of-the-art disk testing area, the innovative ERCoat coating process – developed by MTU – and ultramodern office spaces with around 100 workstations and two rooftop terraces on the upper levels.

With this new production facility, MTU is getting ready for the future, both short-term and long-term. Maurer: “It’s a major part of our sustainable development and for our new production strategy.” Thanks to its participation in new engine programs, both commercial and military, MTU will be seeing enormous growth. The preparation involves the current Geared Turbofan and the upcoming second generation, as well as both of MTU’s future technologies for the commercial sector: the Water-Enhanced Turbofan concept and the Flying Fuel Cell™. There is also activity in the military sector: MTU is working with Safran to develop and manufacture not just the engine for the new European fighter jet, the New Generation Fighter (NGF), but also a new helicopter engine. Maurer: “So of course that needs to be reflected in our production structures, too. Our new hall does that.”

The impressive manufacturing hall was built in just two and a half years – “pure construction time,” explained Dr Markus Zeis, who was responsible for the hall’s completion as the head of MTU’s Enablement Center. He estimated the overall investment at around 120 million euros. He also reminded the audience that the decision to build came in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus; that construction started a year later; and that its completion was celebrated in the summer of 2022. Two years later, we were now holding the opening ceremony.

Zeis: “We lost time because of the coronavirus pandemic. And we had to deal with raw-material shortages.” But despite the supply problems and general cost increases, he said, they managed to keep to the timeline and the budget. The hall building meets the latest construction standards and has a great deal to offer in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability – including a green roof, solar panels, low-temperature heating system (compatible with geothermal power), and of course accessibility, said Zeis. 

Hertling, the head of Production, explained that the three production areas – disk manufacturing, coating, and disk testing – resulted in significant process improvements, shorter processing times (by up to 50 percent), and savings of up to a third of the previous costs. “With this new hall, we are writing a successful new chapter of MTU’s 90-year history. Our future begins now,” he affirms.