First Look Inside Satair's New Battery Repair Facility

New Beginnings

Satair's new aircraft battery services facility opened in March 2018 and gives the company 11 times more cubic workshop and warehousing capacity. The facility, located on the North Feltham Trading Estate in West London will service around 180 customers, ranging from airlines to MROs along with helicopter operators, business jets and private aircraft owners.

The facility services nickel cadmium, lithium-ion, packs and lead sealed batteries. "Apart from the lithium-ion for the Boeing 787, we service every battery that flies," says Jon Ravenhall, managing director of Satair UK.

Nickel Cadmium Work

Ravenhall says around 80% of all work carried out at Heathrow is related to nickel–cadmium batteries. 12% is lithium-ion, and the remaining 8% is packs and lead acid.

Storing Hazardous Goods

Once the summer recess concludes later this month at Satair’s Copenhagen headquarters, phase two of the Heathrow project will begin. This will see the transfer of hazardous goods, which Satair’s UK operation is a center of excellence for, begin. “By the September grand opening, the facility will be two thirds full and will reach fully capacity by Christmas,” Ravenhall says.

Operational Investments

2019 will see operational investments in two projects. The first is electronic data capture which will be carried out via tablets. Tests will begin in September. Second is related to upgrading some of the older charging machines, typically at around five years old, leading to better opportunities around data utilization. “We have the opportunity to take the manufacturers’ ability to link machines together and take data direct from the machines,” Ravenhall says.