And the winners are...

The original bracket GE asked the GrabCAD Community to redesign via 3D Printing methods weighed 2,033 grams (4.48 pounds.) The winner, M Arie Kurniawan, was able to slash its weight by nearly 84% to just 327 grams (0.72 pounds.) His design, was inspired by the H-beam profile and is featured below.

GE Aviation 3D printed (http://www.gereports.com/fit-to-print/) the 10 shortlisted designs at its additive manufacturing plant in Cincinnati, Ohio. GE workers made the brackets from a titanium alloy on a direct metal laser melting (DMLM) machine, which uses a laser beam to fuse layers of metal powder into the final shape.

The team then sent the finished brackets to GE Global Research (GRC) in Niskayuna, New York, for destruction testing. GRC engineers strapped each bracket to an MTS servo-hydraulic testing machine and exposed it to axial loads ranging from 8,000 to 9,500 pounds. Only one of the brackets failed and the rest advanced to a torsional test, where they were exposed to torque of 5,000 inch-pounds.

Pretty awesome work by the GrabCAD Community and thorough testing by the GRC engineers. We will have more information coming and will post all the links here in the Challenge for everyone following. Let's congratulate the winners on passing load conditions in simulation and for those who passed during the real thing. This really exemplifies how GrabCADrs are changing the way engineers work. Keep building better products!

- GE and GrabCAD