Author: neilw

Lufthansa Technik Group was able to increase its result in 2012 in spite of a decline in revenues to 4.01 billion euros as announced at their annual press meeting in Hamburg on March 19, 2013. The annual report of the 23 consolidated Lufthansa Technik Group companies showed an operating result of 318 million euros.

“Considering the strained situation of many airlines, especially in Europe, the overcapacity in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market and heavy pressure on price levels, Lufthansa Technik Group has developed very positively,” said August Wilhelm Henningsen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik. Highlights of the year included the successful entry into service of the Boeing 747-8 at Lufthansa and the start of technical services for the Boeing 787.

“We were able to achieve this good result because many of our cost reduction measures are taking effect and we have been able to reduce the work required in many processes. In addition, a large number of new contracts contributed to our result in 2012,” explained Henningsen. Further measures to reduce costs and increase revenues have been introduced as part of the Lufthansa Group program SCORE, including restructuring programs in their larger production areas as well as targeted sales activities and administration efficiencies.

“We have already implemented many innovations in production and optimized processes there, and we are now striving for similar improvements in administration.” This area of Lufthansa Technik was analyzed by more than 200 experts from across the company with the objective of greater efficiency in all functions that are not directly productive. LHT says the reorganization of its structure and processes will result in the elimination of up to 650 jobs by 2015. Approximately 400 of those jobs will be eliminated in Hamburg. “The measures we have taken as part of the SCORE program have already had a positive influence on the fiscal year 2012 result,” said Dr. Peter Jansen, Chief Executive Finance of Lufthansa Technik. “However, we are dealing with rising personnel and material expenses as well as high price and cost pressures in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) market. Our business risks also include an economic situation in Europe that continues to be difficult, and overcapacity in the MRO market. But with this good result, we have created a financial foundation for the further restructuring and growth of the Lufthansa Technik Group, with the foremost objective of continuing to improve our competitiveness.”

The development of the international Lufthansa Technik network in 2012 was marked by both portfolio streamlining and capacity expansions. LTQ Engineering in Melbourne, Australia was closed and Lufthansa Technik Switzerland in Basel will discontinue operations in April due to reduced demand for line maintenance services. In contrast, Lufthansa Technik Philippines is now offering comprehensive A380 services in its new widebody hangar in Manila and Lufthansa Technik Sofia has doubled its capacity to five overhaul lines through a new complex of hangars.

Currently Lufthansa Technik has more than 730 customers and encompassing 2,200 aircraft around the world. In 2012 the company says it won 45 new customers and concluded more than 500 new contracts. The total sales volume in 2012 from those contracts alone amounted to 480 million euros Jansen said at the event.   Lufthansa Technik enjoys a solid market position, according to Henningsen. “We will continue our course for growth, and set ourselves apart in the market through our quality, the strength of our innovations and our worldwide presence. And this market position will be solidified and expanded even more through the successful implementation of the SCORE measures. That is why Lufthansa Technik will emerge from the consolidation in the airline and MRO markets even stronger than it is today.”

New Joint Venture Announced
Also announced at the event in Hamburg on March 19 is a joint venture with McKinsey & Company. Lufthansa Technik will now offer consulting services for the optimization of complex processes and the operative implementation of transformation programs within the framework of a new association with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

The joint venture will be headquartered in Hamburg and is scheduled to begin its work during the first half of 2013 and will offer consultancy in the efficient design of complex processes in the maintenance and repair of aircraft for international customers in the airline industry and other sectors. Lufthansa Technik says it feels they can springboard their work in successfully structuring processes in its own global network for maximum streamlining and efficiency, particularly through lean management projects to help others both in and outside of the aviation industry. The company says it has long supported several of its customers in improving their own production and service processes and is ready to parlay this knowledge to help others.

New Construction in Hamburg
Additionally Lufthansa Technik announced that starting in February it began building work costing 20 million euros in the eastern section of the technical base to develop workshops, offices and facilities for the Central Materials Technology department. As a result, this high-tech area of the company will be concentrated in a single location. Construction work is expected to be completed in the spring of 2014.

The new six-story complex will provide 6,000 square meters of workshop floor space on two levels, with the Central Materials Technology department on the second floor. The four floors above this, totaling 8,000 square meters of gross floor space, will be used for offices. The building will benefit from efficient insulation and the use of rainwater and parts of it will have a green roof. “With this new building, rather than going for expensive renovation work and retaining inefficient structures, we are investing on a sustainable basis and financing our future,” said Ralf Aljes, head of Facility Management at Lufthansa Technik. The building will use the existing plot ten times more intensively than the one- to two-story old buildings, which have already been demolished.

 

When we hear that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are expanding in the aftermarket, we typically think of the engine makers, with their large share, or the component OEMs, with their rapidly growing share. But the airframers are busily scooping up business, as well, especially through packages that combine component maintenance and management at a fixed price per flight hour. Data analytics programs are also growing, as the aircraft manufacturers leverage their increasing volumes of operational information. Boeing has a large share of the commercial aftermarket. Its aftermarket revenues put it, year to year, in the top three—with Lufthansa Technik and General Electric—says Dennis Floyd, the airframer’s vice president for fleet services in the Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) organization. A lot of Boeing’s success is driven by its parts business, but its footprint also includes flight planning and navigation services, flight and maintenance training, aircraft modifications, analytics and even heavy and line maintenance. Fleet scale and an intimate knowledge of the airplanes they build help the airframers. Their position at the top of the food chain also enables them to cut long-term support deals when they are most attractive and timely—at fleet renewal. And from their position at the hub of the supplier network, they are well-placed to obtain attractive component and maintenance pricing. A third OEM advantage is data—not just design data but operational data. Through joint ventures and alliances with service providers, as well as through direct relationships with the airlines, the airframers are enjoying greater access to operational data and are using it to create valuable monitoring and analytics packages.  The OEMs intend to leverage their fleet-wide data to improve their position. The 787, A350 and A380 are all very data-intensive. The 787, for example, transmits 28 times more data than the 777, according to Boeing. And even the 747-400 is data-rich, the company says. However promising this area is, some basic questions remain to be answered. “A key debate today and in the future is who owns and gets to leverage the data on these aircraft—the OEMs and/or the airline MROs?” asks David Stewart, vice president of the aviation management consulting firm, ICF International. Beyond that, “Will independent MROs get access?” he adds. Boeing and Airbus also have dipped into heavy maintenance, and that is a source of data. Boeing has a 60 percent share in Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services, a JV with China Eastern Airlines. Airbus has a share in Sepang Aircraft Engineering, Malaysia, and EADS has a 20 percent share in Dublin Aerospace, Stewart says. Airbus also has a network of 18 MRO facilities.

Component Support A big trend is integrated component support, explains Kevin Michaels, the leader of ICF’s aerospace and MRO practice. These programs bundle component MRO and asset management with at fixed-rate, power-by-the-hour (PBH) –type pricing. They are an important element of Airbus’ Flight Hour Services (FHS) and Boeing’s GoldCare offerings. Component support will be increasingly important in coming years, Michaels says. “Probably as much as 50 percent of the decisions over the next five to 10 years could go [to integrated component support programs],” whether it’s the OEMs, independents or the airline MROs that get the business. “The airlines don’t want to own non-productive assets.” Component support is the fastest-growing area of the airframe OEM aftermarket offer because it gives the most value, Stewart adds.  “It allows airlines to avoid investment in inventory and reduces complexity because there is only one supplier to deal with. But it’s still immature, and the airframers own less than 5 percent of the components business.

ATR ATR is the OEM leader in air transport aftermarket product and service maturity, Stewart says. The company’s Global Maintenance Agreement (GMA) program is a materials solution that includes access to spares pools and management of rotable repair services, he says. ATR introduced GMA in the early 2000s to help sell airplanes, but since that time the program has come into its own, he says. ATR cites the advantages of a single interface, enhanced spare parts availability, performance efficiency and quality management. It describes GMA as a combined cash flow, time saving, operational and accounting lifecycle tool. ATR guarantees repairs and overhauls on a fixed-cost basis, covering both scheduled and unscheduled events on line-replaceable units (LRUs) and major elements, such as engines, propellers and landing gears, the company says. Low-value parts and consumables are not included. GMA business is growing along with the fleet. One-third of the some 900 ATRs flying in the world are covered by GMAs, says Lilyan Braylé, the company’s senior vice president of product support & services. ATR also is expanding its customer support network to be closer to operators. It recently established a new Customer Support Center in Sao Paulo, he says. The company also has formed a strategic MRO partnership with Fokker Services in Asia to meet the needs of the growing ATR fleet in that region.

Boeing GoldCare Boeing illustrates the trends toward fixed-price, integrated component support and data analytics. GoldCare is meant to be fixed price—by the hour or the month, for example. Over the years it has evolved from a comprehensive support program to a more flexible model, including material management, and has expanded from the 787 to all models. Depending on their circumstances, some airlines may want a parts program or an engineering program, but some want the “full meal deal,” Floyd says. Norwegian Air Shuttle, for example, signed on last year for the full-up “enterprise” level of GoldCare support. TUI receives inventory technical management and parts support. Singapore Airlines Cargo, meanwhile, has signed up for fleet technical management on its 747-400s, including the management of maintenance planning, dispatch reliability and aircraft availability, Floyd says. “We teamed with SIAEC, which does the heavy and line maintenance. We manage the reliability program and aircraft configuration,” including such tasks as keeping track of components, looking at trends and optimizing the maintenance program.

Component Support Airbus currently has more customers than Boeing does in the new integrated component support programs, analysts say. Airbus has six for FHS—China Southern, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, THAI and Sichuan Airlines. Component support for the A380 is one thing—it’s a niche aircraft with expensive rotables and relatively small fleets, Michaels says. But Airbus is beginning to move into the A320, which is another matter, he adds. Boeing counters that a lot of that is semantics. If the company counted PBH-type component support programs not branded as GoldCare, it would have almost 40 customers. The Component Services Program (CSP), for example, which supports 777s and Next-Generation 737s, is quite large. Airlines sign long-term contracts and pay a fixed rate per flight hour for potential exchange of hundreds of LRUs. The CSP program, executed jointly by Boeing and Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance, includes customers such as Skymark Airline for the 737; Air New Zealand, Aeromexico and LAN Cargo for the 777; and TAAG Angola Airlines for the 777 and 737. Boeing also offers PBH-type component services and rotable exchange programs to support the 717, 747-400F and 787 models. Customers have access to a pool including high-value items, such as flight control surfaces and electronic units. Boeing is responsible for repair, modification, and testing as well as the record keeping. Boeing has made some inroads with its Integrated Materials Management (IMM) program, Michaels observes. Focusing on consumables and expendables, IMM “[provides] a lot of value creation to the customer in consolidating purchases from a very disparate and fragmented base of suppliers.” “The cost of purchase orders, alone, if you do it in small quantities, is very expensive to airlines,” Michaels says. “So if a consolidator can come in and not only alleviate the administrative burden, but also alleviate the asset management burden—where they come in and in essence stock the bins—that can be quite helpful to the airlines.” SAS Technical Services (STS), the Swedish carrier’s MRO, signed an IMM contract with Boeing back in 2008. Other IMM customers include Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines and SIA Engineering.

Data Products Boeing also is leveraging its data, something it’s been ramping up since the late 1990s. The company has about 13,000 airplanes in service and “has access to a considerable wealth of operational data,” Floyd says. Boeing collects operational data from airlines as part of reliability improvement programs, service requests that come in, and various other aftermarket offerings. Real-time information about airplanes has been provided to customers via the Internet since 2004, adds John Maggiore, Boeing’s leader of fleet and maintenance solutions. This data gives Boeing an advantage, Floyd says, because “we can aggregate over a larger set of data and, using sophisticated tools, we can find ways to optimize for individual customers.” Because of its knowledge of the customers’ operations as well as their route structure and environment, Boeing can customize their maintenance program to “drive unscheduled work to become scheduled work” and also to reduce the amount of scheduled work, he says. “The whole data angle is not a big, high-ticket item,” Michaels says, but it is an enabler that can improve dispatchability and increase the attractiveness of the product. However, prognotistics—predicting failures—could be a different story, as the engine OEMs have proved. And who better than the OEMs to interpret data snapshots and recommend possible fixes— because of their bigger databases. “In that sense it’s a natural fit for the OEMs.” But the proof is in the pudding, and the challenge is to show that it’s worth the price. The most prominent Boeing analytics tool is Airplane Health Management (AHM), which collects real-time performance data and forwards it to maintainers via data link or satellite communications. They then access it through Boeing’s Web portal, MyBoeingFleet.com. When problems occur, AHM provides probable causes and recommended fixes. Based on historical data, AHM can tell an operator that a certain fix has worked, say, 65 percent of the time for other operators, Floyd says. Although airline data sharing is discretionary, many who had said, no, then changed their minds, Maggiore says. The key is that people understand the value of aggregating fleet data, he says, and are very keen to compare their performance against a larger data set. According to a recent count, there were 53 AHM customers worldwide, including about 1,900 airplanes. There are real-time aspects, as well. The performance monitoring module provides automated monitoring of parameters such as fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Customized alerts can notify engineers 24/7 if some threshold, such as fuel mileage has been crossed and warn of developing problems. Real-time monitoring and customized alerting are available to operators of 777s and 747-400s as well as 787s. AHM is not free—it’s available on a consumption basis—but the value is quite compelling, Maggiore says. In less than a year one customer reduced delay minutes by 62 percent, an “amazing improvement” in so short a time. “It’s a catalyst to manage equipment failures in a real-time way.” AHM also is a prognostics tool. It helped to detect foreign object debris blockage of a 787’s air conditioning vent, which could have led to failure of the air conditioning fans. Based on a customer-set alert, Boeing detected an unusual temperature trend in the air conditioning system. The Boeing operations center monitored the alert, found that it was repeated by the same aircraft on another flight, and recommended a maintenance inspection, at which time the problem was corrected. Boeing also offers the In-Service Data Program, which collects participants’ data, de-identifies it and then provides access to different slices of the data, by user account, and standard trend reports through MyBoeingFleet.com. The program began with the 777 but has expanded to all Boeing models. It gives operators “the chance to get aggregated data over larger fleets and benchmark their performance,” Floyd explains.

Bombardier “As an OEM, we provide all the services required to operate aircraft, particularly around the aftermarket on the service side,” says Todd Young, Bombardier’s vice president of customer services and support for commercial aircraft. Aftermarket revenues are now at about $1.5 billion, with growth expected this year. The company has a network of Bombardier-owned facilities in North America that provide heavy maintenance, and it also offers line maintenance capability. It further partners with 60 Approved Service Facilities worldwide. Bombardier is well-positioned in North America, with a majority of the maintenance work on the CRJ fleet there. The Q400 business is growing as well. The company, for example, has inked a heavy maintenance pact with Republic Airways. Since 2007 Bombardier has been developing a network of Regional Support Offices (RSOs) staffed by representatives, such as structures engineers and in-service supplier/managers. RSO service is free of charge and is meant to build stronger local relationships with operators. There are currently six commercial RSOs, with a seventh slated to open this year in South Africa. Bombardier offers a PBH-type rotable components support program called Smart Parts. It also provides very flexible Smart heavy maintenance programs. North American operators can leverage the company’s large depot in Chicago to avoid stocking their own inventory on-site, Young says. The airframer also provides a Failure Reporting and Corrective Action System (FRACAS), which collects in-service data from both commercial types and outputs a monthly report. The company also has a knowledge-based system that allows operators to troubleshoot issues. This helps them to arrive at the root cause sooner, minimize removals and reduce downtime, Young says. The FRACAS database is part of it, “but it’s also based on the fleet knowledge that we’ve gained over the years,” he says.

Embraer Embraer supports its fleet of more than 1,000 E-Jets with company-owned facilities in Europe and North America and a network of 12 authorized service centers and 21 qualified independent maintenance providers. “We see partnerships as a route to growth,” says Luiz Hamilton Lima, vice president of services and support for commercial aviation. Material support is also key, as evidenced by the company’s flight hour-based Spare Parts Pool program. Embraer manages the repair process and customers have access to a large and reliable stock, Lima says. Among the benefits are optimized availability, predictable cash flow and savings of up to 80 percent of the upfront investment, compared with use of the standard-operation recommended spare parts list over a 10-year period, he says.

Boeing Shanghai

Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services, the Boeing’s majority-owned heavy maintenance facility in China, would seem a departure from the norm for the U.S. airframer. “Our goal is not to … build a lot of MRO facilities all over the world,” says Dennis Floyd, vice president for fleet services in the Commercial Aviation Services (CAS) organization. But Boeing does have a considerable customer base in China, which probably factored into the decision to start up the facility. While heavy maintenance is not a high-margin business, Boeing doesn’t see it as a loss- leader. “We see added value [at the Shanghai facility] higher up the food chain in doing things like GoldCare and modifications,” Floyd says. Right now the unit is completing a 737 passenger-to-freighter conversion, he says, “so it’s moving up into more complex engineering.” Passenger-to-freighter conversions are generally a higher-margin business than heavy maintenance, particularly if the P-to-F intellectual property is internally owned. The Chinese facility, along with Boeing other units, was also instrumental, in executing a service for SAS, Floyd says. The airline needed some 737s, and Boeing helped to line up some used 737-700s to bridge them over until they could get new aircraft. Since the planes were coming from different sources, SAS needed to bring them up to a common airline standard. The Boeing modification business designed a package of 26 service bulletins, and Boeing Shanghai did a lot of the installation work.

 

I get a lot of questions about the FAA’s requirements for aircraft parts traceability. And one of the first things I remind people of, when they ask, is that there is no general requirement under FAA regulations for aircraft parts traceability.

None. Yes, there are requirements for certain parties to prepare or maintain certain documents under U.S. law. For example, when any authorized party completes maintenance, they must complete a record of that work under 14 C.F.R. § 43.9. When a repair station completes a major alteration, it must complete a FAA Form 337. If that same repair station completes a major repair, then it must either complete a FAA Form 337, or else must place the maintenance release language found in the regulations on the work order (and return that work order to the client).

Those who remove life-limited aircraft parts from aircraft are required to engage in safe disposition of those parts, which can include documenting the current life status of the part, but this obligation can also be met through other non-document-based solutions. Operators are required to retain certain records. Records of major repairs must be retained for a year (or until superseded) while records of major alterations must be retained for the life of the product.

But in all of these requirements, there is no requirement under U.S. law that ANY document follow the aircraft parts from one owner to the next. This is a surprising revelation to most people in the aviation industry, who are used to the idea that an aircraft part cannot be purchased without “the right traceability.”

The idea of treating documentation of aircraft parts differently from documentation of complete aircraft is not a novel one. In FAA Registry cases, for example, the courts have recognized that the way that the law treats documentation of complete aircraft is different from the way that the law treats documentation of aircraft parts.

At this point, most of my readers will be thinking “well, Mr. Smarty-Pants Lawyer, if there is no legal requirement for aircraft parts traceability, then why do all of my customers as for traceability?”

The answer is, because of commercial practice. Let’s take life-limited parts as an example. Even though most people think that back-to-birth traceability is mandatory for such parts, the FAA has repeatedly said that U.S. law does not require back-to-birth traceability – not even for life-limited parts. A record of current life status is sufficient to meet the regulatory obligations of the operator. The FAA Chief Counsel’s Office has issued multiple opinion letters on the subject., But just try to sell a life-limited part without back-to-birth traceability! The marketplace has deemed that this is the “appropriate” paperwork for life-limited parts, and so commercial practice has evolved such that this form of traceability is a de facto requirement for U.S. transactions in life-limited parts. If you think about the commercial utility of such traceability, then its value becomes apparent. Life-limited parts are the parts that engineering analysis has shown to need to be removed from the aircraft before a likelihood of failure begins to be realistic. The life-limit is a known safe point, before which failure from fatigue or other related causes is unlikely. Thus, ensuring that a part has not yet reached its life limit is an important safety obligation. It is so important that installers wish to be able to review the paperwork to validate the allegations of current life status found in the records of current life status.

Thus, it has become a commercial norm to ask for back-to-birth traceability in order to have the documentation that validates the allegation of current life status.

In the 1990s, there was tremendous debate about unapproved parts. Ensuring that aircraft parts were manufactured under FAA production approval (or under a legally acceptable alternative) became an important goal for many in the 1990s. As a consequence, documentation supporting the contention that the part is an “approved” part became more transactionally important in the 1990s.

There is no one piece of paper that is always appropriate in every case. Often, an airworthiness approval tag (8130-3 tag) is a very reliable document asserting approval and airworthiness, because it cannot be issued under today’s standards without a finding that the part in question was produced under FAA production approval. And yet it is important for installers to recognize that the airworthiness approval tag tells you that the parts was an airworthy, approved, part at the time that the document was issued. It does not tell you whether the part is still airworthy (It could have been damaged or suffered degradation since the airworthiness approval tag was issued) and that is why the installer continues to play an important role in assessing current status of parts.

The installer’s role in assessing parts is another commercial driver for traceability. The installer of a part has an obligation to make a determination of airworthiness under Part 43 of the regulations (find that the part will return the product to a condition at least equal to original or properly altered condition), but it is common to rely on documents to help make that determination. Traceability, is thus an important tool to assist the installer in making the installer’s regulatorily-required findings.

So what does this tell us about the “right” traceability? It is whatever the installer feels is useful to help determine the quality and nature of the part. If the part can be discerned as an “approved part” based on part markings (e.g. TSOA markings or PMA markings) then these markings might be just as useful to an installer as paperwork would be. In other cases, manufacturer’s packaging might yield evidence of source. In still yet other cases, there might be nothing more than a certificate from an airline verifying that the part is a new surplus part. Do you have to rely on such documentation? NO! Are you allowed to rely on this documentation? YES (as long as it is trustworthy)!

And this is the real trick with traceability.

Certain documentation is deemed to be inherently more trustworthy than other documentation by the marketplace (remember the regulations do not describe appropriate nor inappropriate traceability documentation). Sometimes there will clearly be a “right” document. When exporting aircraft parts from the United States to Europe, for example, an 8130-3 is the “right” document according to the existing US-EU guidance.

And because the 8130-3 tag is issued by the FAA, that document has been considered to be an acceptable document for many other transactions. But if you are receiving a new surplus expendable, any document that you trust to validate that the part is really a genuine article that remains unused is sufficient. So, for example, an airline certificate verifying that the part was received new, and remains unused at the time of sale may be sufficient documentation of new status for many purchasers.

For aircraft parts distributors, this lack of uniformity creates a potential nightmare: every repair station and every air carrier could have different standards for what they will accept (and many do have divergent standards for acceptance). The FAA recognized this issue, and as a consequence the FAA published recommended guidance for what the FAA believes to be acceptable documentation in FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 00-56A.

AC 00-56A was created by the FAA in partnership with the manufacturing, air carrier, repair station and distribution communities. It provides reasonable standards for documentation: the documentation should identify the part and it should identify the part’s condition.

It does not require documentation that does not add value (and some commercial documentation matrices do seem to seek non-value-added documentation). Remember, AC 00-56A is not the law – it is merely guidance; but it is generally acknowledged as the starting point for any traceability list developed to discern appropriate documentation upon receiving inspection and upon subsequent transfer of an aircraft part.

AC 00-56A is available on the FAA’s website. The documentation matrix from AC 00-56A is also reproduced in the ASA- 100 standard, which is available at www.aviationsuppliers.org.

Rosetta Stone has announced a new agreement with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that means employees in the aviation industry will have the opportunity to learn a new language and develop their communication skills as part of a wide-ranging career development program administered by the IATA Training and Development Institute (ITDI).

The program gives ITDI students access to groundbreaking software solutions from Rosetta Stone, the global leader in language-learning technology for schools, businesses and individuals. The company’s TOTALe PRO solution—recently expanded to include mobile applications, live online tutoring with native speakers and group-based interactive learning games—is available in more than 20 languages. The Rosetta Stone partnership marks the first time language training has been offered through IATA’s training curriculum, which already features classroom and distance learning in aviation administration, security, tourism, safety and many other subjects.

This year, over three billion passengers will crisscross the world aboard flights served by 8.4 million aviation industry workers. IATA represents member airlines and interacts with people at every touch-point of the aviation supply chain. Given the aviation industry’s global breadth, multilingualism has become a key area for employee development, compliance and competitiveness.

“If ever there was a truly global industry, aviation is it,” said Judy Verses, president, Global Institutions at Rosetta Stone. “Being able to communicate across borders and cultures is a vital skill for global organizations.”

The ITDI client base is drawn from the employees of 240 member airlines. Participants who successfully complete Level 3 and Level 5 of Rosetta Stone TOTALe PRO as part of ITDI’s curriculum will earn certificates reflecting their language proficiency.

“Airlines and supply companies serving the global aviation industry may operate in dozens of different countries,” said Ismail Albaidhani, head of Global Partnership & Learning Innovation and interim head, ITDI. “Language and communications skills are critical. This partnership with Rosetta Stone will enable us to better serve the education and training needs of the industry.”

While Rosetta Stone counts many international airlines and airports among its customers, the agreement with IATA marks the company’s broadest foray yet into the aviation industry.

Tips on how to make minor repairs to new basecoat/clearcoat paint finishes.

As you read in Dave Jensen’s story New Promise in Paint, which appeared in our (see Aviation Maintenance, April/May 2012) issue, the aviation industry has pretty much switched from the old lead-based primers and single-stage top coats to a much more environmentally-friendly generation of basecoat/clearcoat (BC/CC) finishes.

According to the various manufacturers, these new BC/CC paints offer a variety of benefits beyond their safety: they dry faster, have a greater resistance to wear, provide a much wider range of colors and, they also offer, what promises to be a much longer life on the aircraft. And while they’re better, they’re not ‘bulletproof.’

“Even the most durable, high-quality aerospace coating system will require thorough inspections and regular maintenance,” explained Julie Voisin, product manager, Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings. “Today’s latest coatings are far easier to maintain and repair. The clearcoat also makes the aircraft’s surface easier to clean than traditional single-stage coatings.”

Ms. Voisin also stated repairs to minor blemishes in the clearcoat are especially easy. “Repairs can be as simple as buffing just the clearcoat or a localized section of the basecoat section,” she said. “In addition, the shortened processing time, (up to 30-percent off traditional coating processing times) means aircraft will spend less time in the maintenance hangar.”

This Isn’t Your Father’s Oldsmobile… “Aviation is now kind of catching up to where automotive paint technology has been for over 20-years,” added Joseph Wood, North American business director, Liquid Industrial Coatings Group, Axalta Coating Systems (formerly DuPont Performance Coatings). “These new paints and coatings offer many benefits, but they also require a stricter adherence to procedures. Mainly because they have less solvents and a higher solids content.”

“We’re constantly working to enhance the application ‘robustness’ of these new finishes,” he said. “By robustness, I mean the ease of application, where if you follow a certain set of parameters you’ll get a consistent finish, cure and film properties.”

In fact, following processes and procedures is so critical to achieving the level of finish quality today’s customer demands that Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Society of Protective Coatings have joined to create the industry’s first Certification for Coatings Application (see sidebar).

“We have a rule-of-thumb, that states if you are going to paint anything bigger than a dollar bill, you really need to do it in the right facility and environment to do it correctly,” Wood said. “You need to be precise in your measurement of the materials. Precise in the equipment you are using. You need the correct ventilation and air flow.”

“Remember that a lot of these new paints have modular components based on their application conditions. The size of the panel to be painted, ambient air temperature, air flow – all these kinds of things,” he said. “Really, if you’re going to paint an eight-inch square, you going to want to use a different solvent than if you’re going to paint the entire wing or airplane.”

Paint Repair 101 Wood said that today’s BC/CC coatings are a lot easier to repair than the old finishes and that you can definitely use today’s paint with the old paints. “It’s not going to crater or fish-eye massively or anything like that,” he said. “That old paint has long cured enough so that won’t be a problem.”

However, Wood stressed that you would need to follow the paint manufacturer’s published procedures and processes, including the appropriate pre-treatment steps to the letter. “I’ve seen more mistakes caused by people being in a hurry than anything,” Wood warned. “If they would just slow down a bit on the front side and make sure everything is correct before they actually mix the paint.”

Ed Mullins, technical specialist, Aerospace Coatings, PPG Aerospace stated that a good rule-of-thumb is to start with a checklist. “Best practices within the paint industry always lead back to the cleanliness of the substrate,” he said. “A good clean substrate provides a solid foundation for good paint application.”

He also suggested that technicians take full advantage of the information available to them on the Internet. “There’s much more good information available now than in past years,” he said. “It’s always best to stop when a question or concern arises and refer to the information that is available. That often leads to an answer that eliminates a costly mistake.”

And when you are doing your research, remember that, unlike a single-stage paint, you’re dealing with a BC/CC finish so you may have repair options and the Internet is a good place to search them out.

For example, if, like on your car’s finish, you see a white mark on one of the color areas, you may be only looking at damage to the clearcoat. In fact, clearcoat is very tough and there are multiple mills of it on top of the basecoat. “Repairs can be as simple as buffing the clearcoat or a localized section of the basecoat scheme,” Ms. Voisin said.

Sherwin-Williams has a really good video on repairing minor surface damage/blemishes on YouTube: (www.youtube.com/watch?v=AifGkQ87HJA) `“The only caveat on buffing is you really need to get in tune with your supplier of these types of materials,” Wood stated. “They have really changed a lot in the past few years – not only the compounds but also the technology of the pads and equipment. They’re really more designed for today’s paint coatings.”

Sometimes the clearcoat itself is damaged to the extent where you will need to respray. “You can do some of what I call ‘blending of clearcoats,’” he explained, “but I tell technicians all the time if you can get a clean panel-break and you can tape off the panel, then go ahead and respray the entire panel. You’ll get a much better repair.”

So what if you know that the damage goes down to the base color coat or even to the structure below? Again, the right repair is tied to the severity of the damage. If the scratch goes all the way to the metal or composite, it’s a totally different, and much more involved process. “A very simplified version of a repair would look like this:” Mullins explained. “Ensure the area is clean and remove all the color on the defect. From that point the repair can either be blended with a blending solvent or cleared then blended.”

“In many cases,” he added, “the area is then lightly polished to remove any overspray, being very careful not to damage the new repair.” Wood also suggested that even if you do a spot fix to the color that you clearcoat the entire panel. “That’s going to give you the highest durability and it going to wear at the same rate as the rest of the aircraft’s finish,” he said.

Ready, Aim… While a complete understanding of the exact chemistry of the primer and BC/CC is critical to achieving the high-level of quality you want, Wood also stressed that you have to use the right type of spray gun.

“The latest achievements and improvements in spray gun technologies have been tremendous,” he said. “If you think back to the ‘70’s and the old Binks model 7 syphon spray gun you’re missing a lot in what today’s sprayers can do.”

“Today probably 95-percent of repairs are done with a new gravity-feed type gun. This works so much better with the high-solids paints because you are not using energy to pull the paint up then trying to atomize it,” Wood explained. “It minimizes overspray, minimizes consumption and still gives you a great finish – especially on smaller, touch-up repairs.”

“There have also been big advancements in the paint cup itself,” he added. “Several companies now offer disposable liner cups so you don’t have to waste time and chemicals to wash the cups and it takes a lot less solvent to clean the guns.”

Interiors Need Help Too Of course with all the wear and tear that interiors suffer, sooner than later you’re going to have to do some paint touch-ups on the inside. AkzoNobel recently introduced its Dab2Fix (www.anac.com/Brochures/AkzoNobel_Aerofine_Dab2Fix.pdf ) paint application system created for quick interior paint repairs.

According to the company, the system “allows controlled application to interior surfaces, correcting surface damage in a simple and effective way. The sponge applicator ensures areas can receive a touch-up repair to maintain the overall appearance of the aircraft interior.”

StandardAero is First MRO to Complete ERAU/SSPC’s New Aerospace Coatings Application Certification As paints and their proper application requirements become more sophisticated, so must the training that aircraft painters receive to do the job properly. “Historically, learning how to paint has been primarily on-the-job type training,” explained Mike Menard, VP/GM, StardardAero’s Springfield Completions Center. “A lot of ‘tribal knowledge’ was passed along, but there was no consistent baseline or body of knowledge.”

To ensure that its customers are getting the best quality of work possible, when Menard heard about the Aerospace Coatings Application (www.sspc.org/ACAS/) certification programing being offered as a joint venture between Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC), the StandardAero team wanted to be the first MRO to take advantage of the certification training.

“The program is great. It offers technicians a good theoretical base on which to build their craft and that translates into a better result for our customers,” Menard said. “That theoretical knowledge is often what’s missing from OJT – you know what needs to be done but you don’t know why. Knowing why is more important today than ever.”

“For example, any painter worth their salt will tell you that proper surface cleaning and preparation is critical,” he added. “But they really don’t know why. What are the things at the chemical level that make it work or not work? This certification creates a much better, more consistent foundation for our craftsmen.”

The ERAU/SSPC certification program consists of six training modules that are completed by the technician online. Menard said that it takes about six-weeks for a working painter to complete that part of the training.

“For the final exam an Embry-Riddle instructor came to the shop to see each technician put his or her knowledge into practice,” he said. “You have to prep and paint a piece of aluminum using the proper technical data sheets and you have to know why you are doing each step.”

“Going through the course doesn’t make you a painter, it just gives you the understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it,” Menard said. “Now they know why humidity is important and why it matters what order you mix the two-part paints. They now know how each little part comes together to make a better paint job.”

Menard said that it also helps make for better moral among its employees. “It’s been a good way to challenge our painters. They use the same techniques they always have, but now they have a clear understanding of how it all works,” he said. “We’re investing in our employees’ futures. They are true craftsmen. We’re just providing them with a better foundation.”

And as we all know, when it comes to painting, the better the foundation, the better the finished product.