Category: Commercial

The quest to increase commercial airliner range while cutting fuel consumption is being led by the high performance engines on these aircraft. This fact puts a heavy responsibility on companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell Aviation Lubricants, who make the oils and lubricating substances that keep these engines running safely and smoothly.

To get a top-level view of the challenges associated with this responsibility, Aviation Maintenance magazine was fortunate to speak with the people in charge of these efforts. They are Edward L. Barnes, Global Chief Engineer of ExxonMobil Aviation Lubricants; and Vincent Begon, General Manager of Shell Aviation Lubricants. The following is a roundtable discussion based on their answers.

Aviation Maintenance: What kinds of demands are modern oils and lubricants having to cope with on commercial airliners, such as higher engine temperatures on ultra-long-range aircraft such as the Airbus AS350-900 and Boeing 787?

Vincent Begon: Many advances in commercial airliners have taken place over the last few decades which have put heightened demands on modern oils and lubricants. More modern maintenance practices and improvements to engine performance through efficiency gains in fuel consumption have resulted in higher operating temperatures and pressures, creating more severe lubricant operating conditions.

The rise of ultra-long-haul travel in particular has resulted in the need for engine oils with very good (and improved) thermal stability since this type of travel inevitably creates higher temperatures in engines, which can have a significant impact from a maintenance perspective. One consequence is that the higher engine temperatures can increase the temperature of the turbine engine oil (TEO) being used. This can have a negative impact on TEOs not designed specifically for such conditions, potentially resulting in unwanted carbon deposits in the engine – a process otherwise known as coking. This can be very costly from a maintenance perspective.

Choosing the right TEO, notably third generation TEOs such as ASTO 560, is one of the most effective ways for airlines to handle the maintenance pressure of ultra-long-haul flight on their engines. Just as the trend towards longer flights is the product of decades of manufacturing advancements, engine oils have likewise been adapting over this time to continue to service the requirements of the latest engines. While turbine engine OEMs are now moving away from standard performance oils to high performance oils, many airlines continue to use standard, second generation oils rather than third generation oils which are designed to prevent such coking issues.

Edward L. Barnes: Higher engine temperatures is not a demand or a concern across the board. It is engine design specific. For example, when it comes to the engines on the 787, there’s a choice. You could have the Rolls Royce Trent 1000, or the General Electric GEnx-18.

Now the engine OEMs take different approaches to designing their engines, and that results in different levels of demand on the lubricant. The Rolls Royce engines tend to be a little hotter — it’s part, part and parcel of their path to efficiency. (In fact) All of these new engines have higher gas path temps, the RR Trent 1000, XWB and 7000 models have higher lubricant temperatures because of their design details. That will limit the types of oils that are allowed or approved for some of the newer Rolls Royce engines, such as our Mobil Jet Oil 387.

Now, as I said, the OEMs take different approaches here. For example, General Electric’s GE9X engine, which will be on the B777X aircraft when it enters service, does not place these same kinds of demands on the lubricant. The lubricant temperature is simply not as hot.

So the spectrum of approved oils is broader there. They allow those standard oils for those engines, and standard oils are working very well in many other new engines already in service, such as the PW1110G, the CFM LEAP-1A and -1B. So there’s not a consistent trend across the new engines that all of them require higher performance oils. That’s not true.

Aviation Maintenance: What is coking, why does it happen, and what damage does it do to engines?

Vincent Begon: One key maintenance challenge which occurs as a result of selecting an engine oil that cannot withstand the operating conditions of the engine is coking. This is essentially the build-up of unwanted carbon deposits, formed when oils break down under high temperatures.

If preventative measures are not applied, coking can be costly and unsafe. Carbon deposits can block oil filters and pipes, and in extreme circumstances, blocked filters can lead to oil starvation or carbon in the oil being fed to the bearings, resulting in bearing failures. Blocked oil scavenge tubes can also lead to engine fires.

Aviation Maintenance: What other problems can occur with aircraft if aviation oils and lubricants aren’t sufficient for their tasks?

Edward L. Barnes: Well, load carrying is always important. You need to be able to protect bearings and loaded contact surfaces of gears and accessory gearboxes.

That has not been a problem in the industry. It’s something we’ve coped with. Our standard oils carry load very well. The older MIL-PRF-23699 HTS oils also do the job and that’s accomplished with additives.

One area of particular trouble in the past has been the interaction of lubricants with seal materials — in particular, fluorocarbon, which is commonly known by its trademark name of Viton. The wrong species of Viton, combined with the wrong type of turbine oil with some additives can cause issues. The seals can degrade, they can swell, they can soften, they can fail.

Preventing this from happening was featured very prominently in our design of Mobil Jet Oil 387. We understand the chemistry of that seal interaction issue historically, we learned from it, and we designed a product which is very benign to seals, which can’t be said for all of the competitive products.

Vincent Begon: The other key challenge associated with using the incorrect oils and lubricants is elastomer compatibility. Whilst some antioxidants can provide good thermal stability and low coking propensity, some can be aggressive to certain elastomer materials used in some engine oil systems. If an oil is incompatible with an elastomer, it can lead to degradation, with cracking or deterioration of rubber ‘O’ rings which can lead to leaks, high oil consumption, maintenance headaches and, by consequence, higher operating costs. Currently, ASTO 560 is one of very few market solutions found to work on most engines without degrading elastomers.

Edward L. Barnes: There are other issues to consider when an operator makes a lubricant conversion, such as deposit washout and the effects the new lubricant may have on seals. The operator should work with the OEM and the lubricant provider to understand the risks.
We understand those risks well, and conversion is a manageable process, but OEM guidelines must be followed.

Aviation Maintenance: What other challenges do you expect commercial aviation oils and lubricants to face in the future, e.g. with the emergence of eVTOLs?

Vincent Begon: In the short to medium term, eVTOLs will not significantly impact the existing civil commercial market. Initial eVTOL aircraft are designed to carry a small number of passengers or cargo over an inter-city range. Today, this market is served by buses, trains, cars and helicopters, hence the limited impact on commercial aviation oils and lubricants in the near future.

Edward L. Barnes: The pace of change in commercial aviation is very slow because of the conservative, risk-averse nature of the industry. The military is a different animal: They can experiment a little bit more and be a little bit more aggressive with totally radical technologies for propulsion engines.

Along with that will come different lubricants and coolants for those situations. But for commercial aviation, I don’t see a revolution coming. The same turbine oils that are in use today will probably be in use 20 to 30 years from now.

The introduction of electric or hybrid electric technology where you might have, let’s say, an APU that’s powered by hydrogen generating electricity for multiple electric fans – it’s probably going to use the exact same lubricant despite using different fuels like hydrogen or sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). The SAF products will not require a revolution in lubricants. The current technologies will work. There may be slight adaptations, some additional products coming down the pipeline, but I don’t see them being revolutionary. They will be very similar and compatible with what we’re using today.

Electric motors don’t use a lot of lubricant in most cases. They will have greased and sealed bearings. However, there may be specialized electric vehicle fluids in transmissions if the motor assembly has a transmission. This is what is happening in automotive technology: Most of the electric vehicles have transmissions that use specialized transmission fluids, and ExxonMobil is very heavily engaged in that development. We have the Mobil1 EV product line in development, and some of that chemistry may be adapted to aviation if there are electric driveline transmissions employed.

Aviation Maintenance: Going forward, what advances in oils and lubricants are you working on now, and to what end?

Vincent Begon: On the lubricants side of the business, we are investing in strengthening our supply chain, expanding our distribution and extending our product approvals. For example, in 2021 we added a grease manufacturing plant to our lubricant manufacturing network and formed new distribution partnerships in China, India and Latin America.

We are a lubricant supplier with high-performance products for all aviation customers, from light-sports aircraft owners to MROs. All products must meet minimum specifications, but not all approved products are the same, and some can make a significant financial difference so we’re continuing to work on communicating this to our customers so they can benefit.

We are also focussed on garnering support across the aviation ecosystem to drive the adoption of higher performance capability, fourth generation lubricants. Shell is working with engine, airframe and oil OEMs as well as airlines to ensure more oils are evaluated and approved for use so that airlines have a wide array of high performance oils and lubricants to choose from.

The same is also happening in the wheel bearing grease space, with Shell having developed the latest high performance wheel bearing grease, AeroShell grease 58, based on our successful lithium-based grease ASG33 technology. This solution is being worked on with airlines and wheel OEMs to secure full approvals for use but it’s a fantastic solution as it has been designed with the same technology as AeroShell Grease 33 and 64, meaning the three products together can cover virtually all the grease points in a commercial airliner and eliminate incompatibility issues that can otherwise arise when different greases are used together.

Edward L. Barnes: We are working on advances, but we can’t go into any detail because most of it is related to the military. Most assuredly, the ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company is heavily engaged with the US Air Force Research Laboratory, the US Navy, and various OEMs in developing new technologies. But they are on the drawing board along with the aircraft that they might be used in. It’s decades away in most cases.

Vincent Begon: One final note. At Shell, our target is to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050. This means reducing emissions from our operations and from the fuels and other energy products we sell to our customers.

As such, we recognise the need to decarbonise lubricants and are working on solutions, in partnership with OEMs, to fulfill the need for decarbonised oils and lubricants. Part of this means decarbonising our operations, which we’re doing by using post-consumer plastics in our packaging, for example, and installing solar photovoltaic panels on the roofs of seven lubricant plants in China, India, Italy, Singapore and Switzerland.

With the industry bouncing back from COVID, more flying means more maintenance requirements but there are numerous complications to be overcome.

Jeremy Goossens, general manager of Revima Engine Parts Repair based in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, about 18 miles west of Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, says throughput dropped by 80% during the pandemic. However, the facility, which was formerly Chromalloy France, until it was acquired in early 2019, has seen the qualification of a new 20,000 ft2 business unit in the last six months. The company’s investors, including Olivier Legrand, president/CEO, decided on a strategy to be ready to gain a greater market share when the recovery came.

The company, which has around 100 employees, including a ten-strong engineering team, has specialized in repairing CFM56-5A/5B, GE Aviation CF6-50 and CF6-80, Pratt & Whitney PW2000 and PW4000 exhaust systems and the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW100/PT6 families (it has been collaboratively working with PWC for more than 25 years). The new extension will enable it to develop new business lines to serve extended repair capabilities of turbine components (ATA 72), APU components (ATA 49) and exhaust systems (ATA 78). These include platinum coating associated with aluminization diffusion coating of blades and vanes; sheet metal work devoted to large exhaust components for all the engine types; and pipes and manifold systems repairs for CFM56-5A/5B for the moment.

Three major investments are currently being commissioned: robotized arc-wire welding equipment to restore abradable areas of cold section compressor components and hot section turbine stages; a fully integrated Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS) booth to spray ceramic coatings; and a five-axis CNC milling machine for large parts up 1000mm diameter.

It has also expanded its repair capabilities to engine components of APUs overhauled at Revima main facility in Caudebec-en-Caux in Normandy, France. In addition, it has been selected to develop repairs of sealing parts of CFM Leap-1A/1B engines in the next weeks. These developments followed the recent qualification of maintenance capabilities for the afterburner sections of the SNECMA M53 engine for the Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter.

As well as airlines, the customer base includes brokers looking for used serviceable material (USM), which is expected to be strong for a number of years as the market has changed.

Relationships between MROs and OEMs can occasionally become fraught where repairs are concerned, the latter seeing independent development as encroaching on their business, Goossens says the company is not interested in DOA or DER status, preferring to work in close cooperation with OEMs. This is particularly true with several legacy OEMs, where it is a preferred subcontractor, receiving offload work to ease the strain due to heavy development demands.

To support this major shift of demand, the company has also pushed new ways to recruit and strengthen its workforce base, not only by training new hires on the job with senior and experienced maintenance technicians, but also by selecting talented people, attracted by finding solutions to repair parts instead of replacing them by new ones and expecting the highest levels of corporate and environmental accountability after the COVID-19 pandemic and amid all the global uncertainties like the restricted use of limited resources and the company’s impacts on the environment. Goossens says: “This is where this agile company has found a new business momentum and sense of work.”

Niklas Wehrend, product sales manager of Lufthansa Technik’s Engine Parts & Accessories Repair (EPAR) network, says business will have recovered to 80% of pre-COVID levels by the end of 2022 but there is still a struggle to rebuild staffing levels after significant numbers of people left during the pandemic. An important step is the induction in Frankfurt of 24 apprentices for engine technology and 21 in Hamburg, where there is a dedicated training facility.

He says that, while the OEMs may be restrictive about the range of some repairs, such as HPT blades, there are other areas where do not get involved, such as exhaust components. In this case, the company has developed its own customised solutions, which include welding, local manufacture of the use of PMA parts. This work can also include reengineering for improved durability.

He says EPAR had been carrying out visual inspections of engines with imagery being sent to the customer directly, a capability that provided huge benefits when travel was severely restricted. He also notes an increase in the number of green time engines being sent for overhaul.

Lufthansa Technik AERO Alzey extended its capabilities earlier in the year with the signing of an agreement with Pratt & Whitney for the provision of piece-part repairs for the PW1500G engine. As a member of Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan Network, LTAA introduced PW1500G engine repair services in 2018 and has completed 95 shop visits up to date. The new work will include plasma repairs of various engine parts.

MTU has also seen significant improvements, with maintenance revenue in the first nine months of the year growing by 32% from €2.01 billion to €2.64 billion. The main revenue drivers were the PW1100G-JM, which is used in the A320neo, and the V2500 for the A320ceo family. While GTF maintenance has been below expectations, the company expects it to pick up in the fourth quarter.

Confidence has been shown by the opening in October of MTU Maintenance Serbia in Nova Pazova. It will specialize in engine piece part repairs. The new facility has a size of around 39,000m2 and should expand to more than 400 employees in the coming years. In order to prepare the employees in the best possible way, MTU has developed the Aviation Academy in Belgrade into a leading training center for aviation professionals together with the Serbian Ministry of Education. The first MTU Maintenance Serbia specialists have already completed their training, which included intensive on-the-job training at MTU locations in Germany and Poland.

The final handover of the new building took place in June, with the first employees arriving a month later. Final installation and trials of the machinery are expected to be completed to allow operations to start December, only 17 months after the start of construction.

Magnetic Engines, part of Magnetic MRO based in Tallinn, Estonia, expects to see the total MRO market return to 2019 levels by the end of 2023, followed by steady growth. Within that, engines MRO spend is expected to grow even higher than overall MRO growth rates, with most of it being on CFM56 repairs, which will dominate the market by the number of shop visits and by the amount spent.

The company started CFM work four years ago and has steadily increased business, with 30 engines repaired in 2021. However, says Alexey Ivanov, Executive Sales Director of Magnetic Engines, the market for CFM56-5B and -7B engines is shifting towards less costly repairs, as the engines are getting more and more mature. Fewer airlines and asset owners are expecting their engines to have a service interval of 7-10 years. Instead, they are looking at 3-6 years and 5,000-7,000 flight cycles. As a result, planning times are getting even shorter. For example, the owner of -5B or -7B can consider using life-limited parts with 5,000 cycles remaining, which are much easier to locate and where the price per cycle is less than on ‘gold standard’ parts with 8,000-10,000 cycles remaining. The same applies to HPT blades, which are now considered as semi-life limited parts.

He adds that, when the engine is overhauled and expected to achieve fewer cycles, it is possible to use more USM, which can decrease the total repair cost, both the actual repair cost and the relative price per cycle after return to service. Another technique is to use serviceable modules from teardown engines, such as the fan or low-pressure turbine. This can be 20-30% cheaper than overhauling original engine modules with life limited parts replacement. A further option is the use of green time engines. While all these repair strategies give serious savings, the flip side is that the engines require more removals as well as installations, or sometimes this might bring some additional inspections. However, he says most operators consider this a fair price for operation cost reduction, especially as most are still recovering from losses experienced after the pandemic.”

Reducing the engine’s lifecycle horizon also changes the approach towards unplanned repairs. When a repair is planned due to LLP times, for example, the owner decides whether it is economically efficient to invest a certain amount of money and operate it further. For example, if a CFM56-7B engine with good life remaining has defects on the HPC blades, which leads to a top case repair or replacement of the variable stator vane (VSV) VSV bushings, the owner will just perform the repair and return the engine to service. It will decrease profitability on the whole engine lifecycle but does not change it drastically.

When significant defects are identified in the middle of the engine life between overhaul or during routine engine inspection or delivery/redelivery inspections, many questions are raised. For example, if there is HPT blade separation with serious downstream damage in the engine, the asset owner can be forced to drastically change its plans, perhaps deciding it is more efficient to tear it down and sell the parts (or the whole engine can be sold to liquidators if the owner does not have resources to spend on tear down projects).

In anticipation of that market rebound, Magnetic Engines has recently expanded its engine shop in Tallinn. This was originally just over 300m² when it opened in January 2021 the company was launched. It is now over 1,000m², including dedicated office space and premises for both engine and engine components storage and maintenance. Up to five engines can be worked on in parallel and up to 10 engines can be stored. The company expects to take on additional staff as well.

Most job descriptions do an excellent job in explaining exactly what a successful applicant needs to know and be able to do. Knowledge and skill are important, but they’re not sufficient. Successful job candidates are also honest, accountable, and courageous. In other words, they are people of high character.

Why, then, aren’t you actively looking for such people?

Let’s take a closer look.

A Typical Job Description

Suppose your company needs to hire an aircraft maintenance technician. How would you let potential job candidates know this? What follows is an amalgam of several different descriptions for this position that are currently online. All of the descriptions I saw had virtually identical characteristics.

What Employers Look For

The employer is looking for two kinds of things in an aircraft maintenance technician: knowledge and skill. On a scale from one to ten, with one being completely unimportant and ten being essential, how critical is it for such a technician at your company to be knowledgeable and skilled?

Ten, of course. The best people in this area of aircraft maintenance, and all of the others as well, thoroughly understand what the job requires of them and are skilled in doing the work. No company would want an employee who lacks the requisite knowledge and skill.

But are knowledge and skill sufficient? Consider Bernard Madoff in the field of finance, for example. He had a deep understanding of the securities industry. He had great skill in electronic stock trading and in persuading people to invest in his firm.

He also used this knowledge and skill to orchestrate the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He died in prison while serving 150 years for his crimes.If you’re looking for someone to excel on your team, knowledge and skill are necessary, but they’re not sufficient. The best employees are also people of high character.

What is high character?

People of high character demonstrate:

• Honesty

• Accountability

• Care

• Courage

• Fairness

• Gratitude

• Humility

• Loyalty

• Patience

• Presence (that is, mindfulness or focus)

The Mechanic’s Creed, written by Jerome Lederer in 1941, alludes to several of these qualities. For example:

• “I pledge myself never to undertake work or approve work which I feel to be beyond the limits of my knowledge….” (Honesty)

• “…nor shall I allow any non-certificated superior to persuade me to approve aircraft or equipment as airworthy against my better judgment…” (Care and Courage)

• “…nor shall I permit my judgment to be influenced by money or other personal gain…” (Fairness)

• “…nor shall I pass as airworthy aircraft or equipment about which I am in doubt….” (Accountability)

Although you’ve read the creed before, it’s not a bad idea to print it out and post it in a prominent place in your office. Why not do it now? Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Let’s return to our discussion about the ten crucial qualities of high-character employees. One concern you might have about the list is implementing it. How realistic is it to expect anyone, let alone a top employee, to have all ten qualities? We’ll address that question now.

How Good Do You Have To Be?

It is setting the bar too high to expect anyone at your company, including you, to be a saint. We all make mistakes, and we make them over and over.

The distinguishing feature of high character people, however, is that they are honest more often than not. They keep their promises to the best of their abilities, although from time to time they don’t. They usually, but not always, take responsibility for their mistakes.

The people you’re looking for slip up from time to time. But they do their level best to do the right thing as consistently as possible.

Because even the most dedicated, ethically conscious people make mistakes on occasion, the most successful and honorable companies in aviation maintenance have checks and balances in place to make sure that mistakes are caught before they pose a risk to customers.

A Terrifying But True Story

Here’s what can happen if you don’t actively look for a person of high character to fill a position at your business.

Years ago, my company, The Ethics Guy LLC, needed to hire an IT person, so we placed an ad and were deluged with responses. One applicant put himself ahead of the pack. I’ll call him Sly. He described in detail how he would solve the problems we’d presented. He listed his qualifications, which were impressive.

Then he blew it. In the last line of his email, he wrote, “You can pay me X dollars with a business check or X minus Y dollars in cash.” Why would someone offer a discount if they’re paid in cash? So they wouldn’t have to declare it as income on their taxes.

When I wrote Sly back and explained why I wasn’t going to hire him, he was livid. “I thought I’d be saving you money!” he replied. Yes, I want to save money, but not that way.

I reviewed the ad and noticed that there was no reference to honesty in it. I ran it again but added “honesty” to the list of qualifications I was looking for. I got far fewer responses this time. But I also found someone who is just as knowledgeable and skilled as Sly was, and she is an honest, accountable person to boot.

When she can’t solve a problem, she tells me so. When she’s going to be late, she lets me know this. She cares deeply about her work, and I can depend on her to do what she says she’s going to do. I found her by including a reference to character in the job description.

A Call to Action

If you want to build an A-team, you must include references to character in every job description you post. Bonus points for identifying your company’s values in it. This assumes your company has clearly defined values. If not, put it at the top of your to-do list.

But including references to character is just the first step toward building and keeping your A-team. You must also evaluate the character of every job candidate you interview.

In a future article for Aviation Maintenance, I will reveal several questions you can and should ask that will help you identify people with a track record of honesty, accountability, and the other crucial qualities of high-character people. These questions are also valuable for performance reviews to help you determine who you should keep, who deserves a promotion or a raise, and who should be let go.

You can’t afford to hire a single dishonest person. The recommendations here and subsequent ones I’ll present will help ensure that all of your team members are not only knowledgeable and skilled but also people of high character. Your company, the people you serve, and you deserve nothing less.

You Don’t Hear it Often Enough

When the airline industry is in the news, it’s usually because of customer complaints. Even if some of those complaints are justified, why don’t we hear about the thousands of problem-free flights that occur every day? Transporting human beings safely from one place to another is nothing short of miraculous, given all the things that could go wrong but don’t. Surely these incredible accomplishments are newsworthy too.

Therefore, on behalf of millions of airline passengers around the world, I would like to quote the great modern philosopher Ted Lasso and say, “I appreciate you!”

Since the pandemic’s peak, flight schedules have bounced back, and things appear to be heading back to normal. But they are not. The pandemic has fundamentally changed how people feel about public spaces, especially enclosed ones like aircraft cabins.

“In the absence of the visual safety cues that we saw throughout the pandemic, like facemasks and empty middle seats, the aviation industry needs to adjust quickly to deliver effective, perceptible and lasting changes that respond to the evolved needs of the post-pandemic traveler,” Jon Page, president Pexco Aerospace, stressed. “But taking ‘blue-sky’ ideas and transforming them into cabin-worthy, certified innovations is a considerable challenge.”

An Idea with Impact

In 2020, many novel ideas were released in response to Covid-19. Many were attractive concepts, but none could be implemented without significant changes to the aircraft’s interior layout or certification. AirShield was subtler in its physical approach but had big ambitions for its impact on the cabin; it aimed to set a new standard for passenger well-being and hygiene while also elevating the inflight experience.

The big change was how airborne particles behave in a cabin full of people, with nobody wearing a face mask. To understand the scale of the problem, the company modeled more than 60 million data points of CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) to get a definitive picture of what was happening to airflow in the cabin on a particulate level.

Their results found aircraft cabins to be highly efficient at exchanging and cleaning the air in considerable volumes — more so than any other transport environment. But the research also discovered that there was something that could be done. The company looked to enhance performance by adapting the airflow around passengers using the existing vents. In doing so, they say they found a way to control droplets from every sneeze, cough or breath, as well as unwanted odors from passing into passengers’ personal space while doubling how quickly these particles are sent down to the HEPA filters and replaced by purified air.

The concept became AirShield, a patent-pending, simple component that is installed over the top of existing passenger air vents, where it re-purposes purified air from the aircraft’s HEPA filtration systems to create protective air barriers around and in-between each passenger in an airplane cabin.

Collaborate to Innovate

From the start, the company was aiming to have their product to be easy to install and certify, which meant maintaining the existing air volume in the cabin but making it work differently. They conducted numerous testing procedures, including Db level, G-Force, flammability and laboratory fog tests, to gather the data to prove its value. Once the company knew the idea would have a positive impact, in theory, they spent two years refining the engineering to maximize the protection it could offer in reality.

In the early development phase, Pexco completed extensive on-wing tests in partnership with American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. They also recently partnered with Avolon emphasizing that without their assistance the on-wing testing could have been delayed for several months, as finding an aircraft during the busy summer months proved very challenging. They also needed to test it in a real cabin environment and collaborate with companies from across the industry.

These partnerships were critical in shaping the engineering development of AirShield, Page says, and proved its ability to enhance passenger well-being in the cabin.

The Challenge of Certification

Bringing any concept to market is a huge undertaking, but in aviation it is especially so. Proving an idea works is not always enough to get it into the skies. For airlines requiring hundreds of thousands of units installed across a fleet, how a product is built and manufactured is equally, if not more important, than the idea itself.

Certification is arguably the biggest hurdle to bringing “blue-sky” innovation to the cabin. While it plays a crucial role in ensuring the efficacy of innovations and that every part of the cabin interior is safe and functioning correctly, it can also be costly and time-consuming. Experienced engineers need to manage every step of the process — working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and its Designated Engineering Representatives (DERs).

AirShield was consciously engineered to kickstart the passenger well-being revolution from within the existing framework, Pexco says. It has been designed to work in harmony with the current infrastructure in the cabin and adapt it to create new benefits for the inflight experience.

During the development process, the company prototyped more than 20 versions of AirShield, which were 3D printed. The company says these rapid iterations empowered their engineering team to constantly refine the performance of the technology and ensured they could achieve the desired impact without modification to the existing cabin airflow system or any recertification to the seating — an essential consideration for airlines and regulators.

The result is AirShield’s unique three-piece assembly that is lightweight (weighs less than a pound) and they say is incredibly durable. The quick and straightforward installation will allow it to be done as part of routine overnight aircraft maintenance.

Building Momentum

Even once a cutting-edge innovation is certified, the aircraft interior industry is a competitive market. Momentum and awareness is crucial.

To showcase the demand for AirShield, the company invested in an independent passenger survey of U. S. leisure travelers. The results were more conclusive than even the company could have hoped for:

• 91 percent agreed that AirShield makes them feel like an airline is taking care of them.

• 89 percent would feel more comfortable flying with AirShield post-pandemic.

• 86 percent of respondents also stated they would choose to fly with an airline with AirShield installed over one without.

• Significantly, 71 percent were willing to pay more to fly on an airline that equips its planes with AirShield.

Knowing what is known now about airborne viruses, Pexco believes these numbers could be even higher if the survey was done again.

At the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2022 in Hamburg this past summer, the company went one step further and created a full-size A320 mock-up and VR system. This display enabled industry decision-makers to see how AirShield worked in practice and understand the product’s rigorous data and engineering innovation.

Time to Take Off

Having received PSCP authorization from the FAA (approving all the test parameters), Pexco worked with Avolon to complete their final on-wing tests. In the coming weeks, the company will be ready to submit for full STC certification to the FAA.

Reflecting on the journey, Pexco says four core pillars have given AirShield the best possible platform for success: engineering expertise, industry collaboration, market understanding and a willingness to adapt to certification requirements.

“We believe these will empower AirShield to become the new gold standard for air management in the cabin, now and for decades to come,” said Page, whose career spans more than 25 years leading organizations across the automotive, industrial and aerospace industries in the U. S. “Our journey will not be complete until it is installed on narrowbody aircraft worldwide, protecting the millions of passengers who step onboard daily. But we hope the lessons we have learned along the way will inspire a new generation of innovators to pursue their ideas that enhance the future of air travel for us all.”

AVM: You were once a venture capitalist investor and swore you’d never invest in 3D printing. Today, you’re the founder and CEO of one of the fastest-growing additive manufacturing (AM) companies in the industry. What changed your mind?

Buller: When I was an investor at Khosla Ventures, I was compiling some due diligence on a deal we were considering investing in. As part of that effort, I reached out to some engineers I had connections with who were exploring additive manufacturing as a possible solution to some of their biggest engineering challenges.

It all clicked for me when I was talking to an engineer from SpaceX. I asked them about their use of additive manufacturing and they told me that it’s generally not a challenge for them. 80% of the parts they produce through AM can be successfully produced on the first try; 15% of their designs take two or three tries to be successfully produced; and they said that about 5% of the parts they aimed to build were a challenge. These were parts that were super complex and very important to delivering on specific needs, like improved thrust-to-weight ratio, part consolidation, or some other metric. So to me, next-generation 3D printing technologies could only address about 5% of this company’s parts produced through additive manufacturing — the other 95% of the parts were already producible with technologies currently on the market. This validated my existing concern about investing in the 3D printing company we were evaluating.

However, right after that, an engineer across the room spoke up and said, “Yes, but you have to keep in mind. We’ve been working with additive manufacturing for years. We usually know what can and can’t be produced from the start. Those 5% of parts remain a challenge because they are so critical to our business that we absolutely cannot compromise the designs. If we could easily produce that 5% of parts, 100% of our parts would fit that category.”

I immediately realized what we needed was additive manufacturing solutions that were limitless and could truly unlock design freedom for innovative companies and engineers. There was a huge opportunity for someone to come in and solve these challenges that the dozens of the companies in the industry had given up on. That’s why Velo3D was born–to give engineers ultimate design freedom so they don’t have to compromise their designs; it is our mantra.

AVM: Additive manufacturing has exploded in the aerospace and defense industries—especially in maintenance, repair, and operations—why do you think that is?

Buller: The aerospace and defense industries are some of the most innovative industries in the world. This is because they can deliver a huge competitive advantage for entire countries of people. As we’ve learned time-and-time again, a single large-scale attack can cripple economies and create cascading effects around the world.

As innovators, these two industries are always on the forefront of adopting new innovative technologies, like additive manufacturing technology. This includes the development of new applications and products as well as in the maintenance of existing designs.

The U.S. armed forces alone operate more than 14,000 aircraft. Each one of these aircraft undergo regular maintenance to ensure safe operation, which includes replacing parts at regular service intervals. The lead time for some of these maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) parts can be measured in months to years due to the challenge behind manufacturing them and other supply chain issues. Many of these mission-critical parts only have one or two suppliers who can produce them. And what we’re seeing in this post-COVID world is in some cases, no suppliers are around anymore that can reproduce the parts needed to restore/operate the vehicle.

However, 3D printing can streamline supply chains in several ways to decrease on-hand inventory required and shorten lead time. Many of our customers are choosing our technology because they see an opportunity to take existing designs and print them, rather than manufacture the parts through conventional means. Using this approach is as simple as taking a traditional CAD file, uploading it to our Flow print preparation software, and printing. Depending on the part, there may also be some need for machining afterward to add threads or other mating surfaces.

Another benefit to using AM in MRO is you can create distributed supply chains that allow you to produce the parts you need across a large number of machines and suppliers, rather than one or two. You can also produce the parts closer to where they are needed, so you only need to transport the powdered metal, rather than try to predict what parts you will need to keep on hand.

As the global supply chain continues to encounter problems, I expect we will continue to see new opportunities arise in MRO for aviation and defense.

AVM: What are some of the considerations companies should have when evaluating whether to produce MRO parts for existing machinery using additive manufacturing?

Buller: The biggest concern is that companies should benchmark whether the solution and the part can be produced in a way that is predictable, consistent, and in-line with specifications. Not just on one printer, but can identical parts be produced across any identical machine that is calibrated for the same metal alloy?

With many current 3D printing solutions, that’s not the case. And in those instances, customers will likely need to requalify a build every time it’s produced on a new machine. In my opinion, that defeats the purpose of using AM to streamline supply chains for MRO. To test this, try to obtain multiple parts from different printers before making your final decision.

Cost is another important consideration. What does the part currently cost when produced through conventional means? What is the cost through additive manufacturing. It’s also important to analyze what the lead time and required on-hand-inventory “costs” the program. For many of the customers we work with, that’s a more important consideration than the fiscal cost.

Some facilities and programs are required to have millions of dollars in spare parts on-hand for every aircraft in operation. However, if you were able to produce the parts more quickly through additive manufacturing — not to mention closer to where they are needed — you may be able to reduce the required parts on hand. This reduction has big impacts on a budget.

AVM: What are some of the critical applications of additive manufacturing?

Buller: In aerospace and defense, probably one of the most interesting applications additive manufacturing is being used in is to build parts for propulsion systems, including air-breathing engines as well as rocket engines. With additive, companies are able to build parts that include features that would be impossible to produce through any other means.

We’ve seen customers consolidate hundreds of parts in a rocket engine into single components, eliminating points of failure and once again streamlining the production supply chain of these systems. We’ve seen engineers build regenerative cooling channels into the walls of rocket engines. Really, with additive manufacturing the idea is you can produce the perfect design rather than having to compromise the design for manufacturability.

AVM: What’s required for additive manufacturing to see even broader adoption and especially adoption in the commercial space?

Buller: Additive manufacturing still has a way to go to see mass adoption. It’s often seen as too complicated to utilize in anything but mission-critical designs. And I do agree with the idea that if you can produce a part exactly how you want through conventional means at a lower cost and a similar lead-time, it doesn’t make sense to build that same part using additive manufacturing.

However, what we need to see for that next phase of adoption is to eliminate the need for specialization in designing a part for additive manufacturing.

There is this concept in the industry called design for additive manufacturing (DfAM). To most engineers, this would sound like an extension of design for X, where X could equal manufacturability, performance, cost, or any number of criteria. However, many are starting to see that DfAM is actually a crutch our industry needs to get rid of. It focuses on compromising a design so it can actually be produced through AM. This might mean changing the geometry of the part, adding supports where they cannot easily be produced, or breaking a single design into multiple parts to make it manufacturable. It also requires extensive specialization, so an engineer who knows how to design parts must “relearn” how to design parts for AM.

I think this is a huge hindrance to our industry and is limiting its adoption in some key industries. Once we have additive manufacturing solutions that can produce any design and can turn a regular CAD file into a print file, we can overcome one of the final barriers to adoption.