GE Aviation buys two area companies

GE Aviation has acquired two Southwestern Ohio companies to help it meet expected engine production rates, the company said.

GE Aviation — which has approximately 2,000 employees in Butler County — has acquired the assets of Sharonville’s Morris Technologies, and a sister company, West Chester Twp.’s Rapid Quality Manufacturing, precision manufacturing companies. GE Aviation did not disclose terms.

The acquisition will help GE Aviation expand its engineering and manufacturing capabilities to meet rising jet engine production rates over the next five years, the company said in an announcement.

“Morris Technologies and Rapid Quality Manufacturing are parts of our investment in emerging manufacturing technologies,” Colleen Athans, the company’s vice president and general manager of its Supply Chain Division, said in the statement. “Our ability to develop state of the art manufacturing processes for emerging materials and complex design geometry is critical to our future.”

A company spokesman said in an email that for many years, GE was a customer of the companies. Both companies have already been contracted for components for GE Aviation’s LEAP jet engine being developed by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma (SAFRAN) of France.

GE Aviation is planning a technology demonstration for the media in Sharonville today.

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