MRO Links Stories Of The Year 2016

Aircraft Demolition, based in Burnsville, Minnesota, completed disassembly of a Boeing 777-300 in April 2016 at San Bernardino International Airport in California. Aircraft Demolition has been working on another Boeing 777 project in California during November and December, taking the fuselage apart from behind the wing back to the tail. The fuselage will be separated into seven large pieces and shipped to Everett, Washington for an engineering project.

Stratasys announced two new 3D printing demonstrators in August: the Robotic Composite 3D demonstrator and the Infinite-Build 3D Demonstrator. 3D printing and additive manufacturing has been a buzz-worthy topic in MRO, with a market for aerospace composite structures at $13 billion this year.

In August, I visited the AAR facility in Duluth, where inside the shop, an Airbus A319 was in for a heavy check and a new “Lockout/Tagout” system was being implemented to tag circuit breakers. Outside the hangar, a few decisions were up in the air. Namely, Air Canada was set to make a decision on extending the five-year contract for another two or five years. Mark Ketterer, VP of operations, says “Negotiations continue with Air Canada on a two-year extension and with other possible customers for the Duluth facility.” The shop was also experiencing a need for 30 A&P (airframe and/or powerplant) mechanics and 10 structural engineers, perhaps a reflection of the industry wide impending maintenance technician shortage. Ketterer says that the shop is still looking for experienced aircraft technicians.

Seating on aircraft can be a controversial subject for passengers who feel claustrophobic or taken advantage of by airlines, but new materials like Stimulite from Supracor and power options, like in-seat power by DigEcor are intended to maximize passenger comfort. Additionally, a gallery about new in-flight entertainment options, like larger screens and customized user-experiences from airlines and suppliers that can help pass the time during a flight, captured attention.

Tour William Frick & Co., a smart label manufacturer with RFID chip capabilities. (http://bit.ly/2gG8Qks) Delta Air Lines, among 11 other aviation companies, uses RFID tags from William Frick & Co. for oxygen generator, life vest and emergency equipment inventory management. Within seconds and the push of a button, all inventory can be accounted for, which reduces the time spent for mandatory checks for expired equipment.

A feature on new windows and transparencies for aircraft suggests that reducing seat size is right up there with adding advertising on windows for passenger concerns. However, dimmable windows or digital screens can create more of a calm environment and display information to the pilots more efficiently.

See new technology capabilities like virtual reality and software programs have allowed old-school processes like highlighting fuel lines on paper to be more interactive, and therefore more efficient. Rockwell Collins is building its own virtual reality application with WorldViz at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility and exploring advancements in the training technology space. The dynamic is two-fold: as MRO equipment and processes technology advances, training must follow. Rockwell Collins announced on Nov. 28 its new Coalescence mixed reality system. The system, initially used for defense training, combines the trainee’s real world view with a digital environment and will become available in 2017, with production expected in 2018.

Foreign object damage (FOD) incidents can cost the aerospace industry up to $12 billion a year or $4 billion in direct costs for damaged parts. Recently, FOD Control Corporation sent out a tip for FOD prevention, recommending expanding FOD Awareness areas as an extra barrier from FOD infiltrating critical areas: “FOD-sensitive areas can be organized in a “concentric ring” system. The FOD Awareness Area surrounds the FOD Control Area, which surrounds the FOD Critical Area. Keeping the outer Awareness Area clean prevents FOD from drifting into the inner Control and Critical areas. This is a particularly effective approach for smaller FOD sensitive areas of a facility that might exist within a larger work environment that may be impractical to secure.”