Category: PRs

BTC Electronic Components (BTC)  is offering J-Tech’s RJ45 and USB Rugged Ethernet Connectors. J-Tech, a division of Conesys, produces these connectors with industry standard RJ45 and USB cordsets in a rugged metal shell without any special t

ools needed for cable termination. Designed for use in harsh environments, the MIL-DTL-38999 Series III shells provide protection against mechanical and environmental conditions.

The Conesys/J-Tech RJ45 and USB Rugged Ethernet Connectors are designed for military applications and provide pristine data acquisition and transmission in the harshest environments. Some of the military applications for network interconnections and data acquisition/transfer include vehicles, radar systems, battle theater communications, controls for unmanned/remote systems and shipboard systems.

“J-Tech’s RJ45 and USB Rugged Ethernet Connectors further expand BTC’s extensive high reliability connector offering,” noted Keith Filter, director of product management. “We take pride in providing our customers with the right connector solution for any application.”

The Conesys/J-Tech RJ45 and USB Rugged Ethernet Connector are available with a RoHS compliant plating option. Other notable features about this connector include:
• Cable versions are available with IP68 Backshells using a plastic gland or EMI Backshells.
• Receptacles are available with inserts grounded to the shell of the connector.
• Through-Bulkhead Receptacles are available – designed to mate with EMI/RFI Plug on each side of receptacle.
• Inserts have multiple options for insert rotation (mechanical coding) that can be changed by the user.
• Connectors with cable termination will accept cable diameters from 0.170” O.D. to 0.460” O.D.
• Accessories are available including metal dust caps, self-closing caps and panel gaskets.

BTC stocks and distributes a wide range of connectors, backshells and interconnect accessories. If you would like to learn more about the Conesys/J-Tech RJ45 and USB Rugged Ethernet Connectors – or any of BTC’s franchised/authorized lines – please call 800-526-2828 or visit their website at: http://www.BTCElectronics.com.

 

Delta Air Lines’ maintenance division, Delta TechOps, has signed a three-year, non-exclusive time and materials (T&M) contract with Italian air carrier NEOS to provide maintenance and repair services to the company’s CFM56-7B engines.

NEOS selected Delta TechOps due to the maintenance, repair and overhaul’s (MRO) demonstrated high level of service and support for this engine type, as well as the organization’s ability to satisfy the unique needs of a carrier our size, said Marco Brusa, technical director for NEOS.

“Delta TechOps was the perfect fit for our organization,” he said. “In addition to their proven track record with the CFM56-7B engine, they can deliver the precise level of flexibility we need in shop input date and spare engine availability.”

 

Due to slow recovery of the global economy, most airlines are still struggling to recuperate satisfactory passenger flows. However, sharp budget cuts and constant pressure to lower operational and other expenses have eventually resulted in positive changes of airlines’ performance. In order to preserve successful optimization goals, carriers are ought to further enhance their performance, for instance, by re-defining one’s supply chain management strategy.

Improving Performance

Recently the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has cheered up the global aviation industry by issuing a revised Industry Outlook for 2012, which states that this year airlines will earn over $4 billion, i.e. $1.1 billion more than previously expected. With due regard to high oil prices, which account for over a third of airlines’ expenses, the updated figures indicate that the aviation industry is successfully adapting to the changing global economy conditions.

‘Of course, the industry players had no options, but to reconsider their business models in order to survive the economic turmoil and remain in the market. The last 5 tough years had urged both small and large airlines to view their activities in a different light. Many of them turned to newer, much more cost-effective narrow-body and regional jets. As a result, leading aircraft manufacturers received a backlog until the end of the decade,’ commented the CEO of Locatory.com Zilvinas Sadauskas.

Flourishing Developing Economies

However, the rising demand for new aircraft is driven not only by the need to operate more fuel-efficient jets, but also by the highly promising new opportunities in the emerging markets. According to the Global Finance, the annual GDP growth in the emerging and developing economies will be approx. 6% in the following 5 years while the global average will be only slightly over 4.9%. As the purchasing power of nations in the developing economies is improving, their demand for air travel is also rising. For instance, IATA reports that in August the demand in Latin America was 7.3% higher than at the same time in the previous year. Aviation industry players from the emerging markets players are naturally also seeking to benefit from the situation. As a result, they currently account for half of the Boeing’s and Airbus’s backlogs.
Meanwhile, the demand in North America has increased by 0.5% only. However, slower growth rates do not have to necessarily raise serious concerns. The latest figures indicate that North American carriers have shown the best improvement in their performance as the report forecasts the highest $0,5 billion increase in the annual regional industry profits.

No need for large stocks

‘In past the majority of airlines were fond of keeping enormous stocks of components, spare parts, rotables, consumables and other materials thus trying to ensure maximum support for the fleet. However, the development of the aviation industry has revealed that housing big stocks is not only expensive, but also ineffective. An airline may invest $100-200 million in a spare parts stock, but it still won’t cover every possible malfunction or need. No airline can predict what part and when will be need. There will always be a part or a component which is unavailable or too far to be delivered from the base stock,’ commented Zilvinas Sadauskas.
As one of the consequences of the most recent crisis, some airlines have started to consider the low-cost carriers’ (LCC) business model as a means to reducing costs. For instance, many LCCs are preferring to outsource their supply chains to third parties. This helps to minimize components-related costs, since spare parts and/or MRO providers can significantly reduce airlines’ storage expenses and eliminate situations of unnecessary part acquisitions. However, such a model implies extensively large network of suppliers for airlines which operate in dozens of different countries across a variety of regions. And complicated networks often bring about intricate internal supplier management systems of extremely low-efficiency.

Further development

Today not only LCCs, but many other airlines also prefer to outsource spare parts supply to third-party providers. However, while entering new markets, particularly the emerging ones, some carriers encounter difficulties in maintaining effective and continuous spare parts support, since many Western suppliers haven’t yet embraced their presence in the flourishing developing markets. As a result, airlines are forced to look for local suppliers and/or form component pools with regional carriers.
‘In order to preserve the achieved improvement in their performance, airlines should further develop their supply chains. In order to effectively manage their supply chains, carriers should more actively implement e-enabled management systems, which can significantly ease the process of parts procurement at any location in the world, whether it is China, the United Kingdom, Brazil or Ukraine. Unfortunately, the development of own system for the needs of even a small airline would require considerable investments, left alone the time and HR-related costs. For that reason some airlines may find it reasonable to integrate the already existing platforms, which provide easy access to already verified and trusted local suppliers, as well as assist in forming and managing online joint component pools between airlines. The latter, for instance, is a particularly effective solution for airlines and airline groups which operate similar fleets and serve nearby destinations,’ commented Zilvinas Sadauskas.

Special-effect coatings by PPG Industries’ aerospace coatings group enabled Virgin Atlantic Airways to have the unique reflectivity and bright, vibrant color the airline’s design and engineering teams wanted for its new livery.

The airline has taken delivery of the first new aircraft – an Airbus A330 – painted with Desothane topcoats by PPG Aerospace colored with Andaro special-effect pigment. The proprietary PPG pigment was used in coatings that create the red tail and engines and the aubergine Virgin Atlantic lettering across the aircraft. The fuselage is painted with Desothane topcoats in high-sparkle silver mica.

Traditional mica aircraft coatings have about 30 percent reflectivity, while coatings with Andaro pigment reflect about 90 percent of visible light, according to Alex Reid, PPG Aerospace account manager at the North Europe application support center in Shildon, England.

“Virgin Atlantic likes innovative technology,” Reid said. “Because using Andaro pigment in aerospace coatings was new, we worked closely with Virgin’s engineering team to get the products approved to apply to their aircraft. We worked alongside their design team to get the unique colors made with Andaro pigment incorporated into their new company identity.”

Virgin Atlantic’s design team came to PPG with a vision for the coloring. Reid and the PPG Aerospace coatings team sought input from color experts in PPG’s automotive OEM coatings business, and they adapted the Andaro pigment technology for aerospace coating applications.

Virgin Atlantic’s support throughout the process was unwavering, Reid said. “They signed on to the product and were willing to see it through to the end.”

Peter Wind, PPG sealants and coatings technical manager for the United Kingdom, oversaw testing to confirm the suitability of coatings with Andaro pigment for aircraft exterior application. He represented PPG at the A330 delivery ceremony in Toulouse, France, and on the aircraft’s maiden flight to London’s Heathrow Airport.

“It was a bright, sunny day, and the red Andaro pigment was shown to its full effect,” Wind said. “We walked around the exterior of the aircraft with Virgin Atlantic CEO Steve Ridgway, and he was very impressed with the vibrancy of the PPG coatings.”

Desothane topcoats with Andaro pigment will be used on all new aircraft delivered to Virgin Atlantic and are being used for repainting its existing fleet with the new livery.

In an effort to further strengthen and grow a regional aerospace cluster, members of the Rockford Area Aerospace Network (RAAN) are exhibiting at the National Business Aviation Association’s Annual Meeting & Convention for the third consecutive year. The event, which will be held in Orlando, Fla. from October 29 to November 1, is the largest U.S. tradeshow focused on business aerospace and aviation.

“This event is a major component of the network’s business development strategy. In some respects, this is the U.S. equivalent of the Farnborough and Paris Air Shows at which we also exhibit, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Development,” said Eric Voyles, vice president for national business development at the Rockford Area Economic Development Council (RAEDC), the organization that oversees RAAN.

“This event is an ideal opportunity to raise awareness of our region’s aerospace strengths,” said Dan Bowman, vice president, sales and marketing at Woodward. Woodward is a RAAN member that announced a $200 million, 1,400 job expansion in the Rockford area in August 2012.

The RAEDC formed RAAN in 2010 to gain more high-paying aerospace jobs and increase business opportunities for aerospace suppliers in the region. More than 200 aerospace suppliers have operations in the Greater Rockford area, which stretches east toward Chicago and north into southern Wisconsin. More than 6,500 employees in the industry sector work in the Rockford MSA. The network’s companies serve industry leaders like Boeing and Airbus, which benefit from being able to visit multiple suppliers during one visit to Rockford.

The Rockford region is the 9th largest epicenter of aerospace activity in the country. It is sixth in the nation in terms of concentration of aerospace production employment and one of the largest in the nation in overall aerospace employment. The region leads the state in aerospace manufacturing, with more than 80 percent of Illinois’ aerospace workplace being found in Rockford’s MSA.

“The Rockford region is very good at aerospace. We have the critical mass of suppliers and infrastructure that tier-one suppliers and original equipment manufacturers need. When aerospace companies do business in our region, they immediately benefit from the instant supply chain that RAAN provides,” said RAEDC President Janyce Fadden.

RAAN members jointly seek opportunities to improve the local business climate, share leads and increase aerospace business opportunities. Regional companies exhibiting with RAAN are Ardekin Precision, Chem Processing, Inc., Energy Dynamics, Inc., Ingenium Technologies, Kaney Aerospace and Midwest Aero Support, Inc.

Why Rockford
Fadden gave the following reasons for targeting aerospace companies for investment in the Rockford region:
• Five major tier-one aerospace suppliers are in the Rockford region: B/E Aerospace, GE Aviation, Esterline, United Technologies Aerospace Systems, and Woodward.
• The Bi-State Region’s supply chain has more than 200 suppliers, over 90 in the Rockford MSA.
• The Rockford MSA has more than 4,000 engineers, which is 1.5 times more than the Illinois average; 1.3 times more than the U.S. average.
• The region offers multiple diverse clusters of advanced manufacturing capabilities at twice the national average in manufacturing employment.
• The regional workforce is productive and dedicated, with targeted aerospace industry-training programs.

Aerospace Vision
Voyles explained RAAN’s vision and strategies to achieve its goals and objectives.
• Grow our Brand – Capitalize on region’s position as a global leader in aerospace power management and distribution as well as engine control systems. Continue efforts to become world leader in other segments of aerospace that require engineered solutions.
• Spur Innovation – Support innovation and entrepreneurship, creating additional world-class businesses and institutions that are at the cutting edge of R&D. Promote synergies between aerospace and other industry sectors, such as high-tech manufacturing, creating additional competitive advantages for aerospace companies in other applications.
• Add Workforce Capacity – Educate, attract and retain unparalleled aerospace workforce. Create world-class educational and vocational partnerships and institutions.
• Encourage Supplier Development – Help local suppliers to be more efficient in their on-going operations and develop strategies to move up the value-chain.
• Assist in Business Development – Hold supplier symposiums and help local suppliers to access venues where they can solicit more customers for business.
• Grow the Cluster – Attract and retain leading aerospace and aviation firms to the Rockford region to increase local business opportunities. Leverage geographic proximity to Chicago and Milwaukee’s industrial corridors, logistics infrastructure and educational offerings. Attract region general aviation and defense contractors throughout the product life-cycle supply chain by supporting initiatives they value, such as quality educational environment, quality public infrastructure and quality of life.

 

Comtek Advanced Structures announces latest repair capabilities for the Q400 lower cowl including the acoustic liner and the modification of the L/H and R/H lower cowls to give interchangeability. The acoustic liner repair capability is in direct response to the large number of acoustic liners that are being damaged from heat, air flow, moisture and foreign object debris (FOD).

Comtek’s says their solution not only saves the aircraft operator a significant amount of time and money but allows for the acoustic liner repair to take place without removing the intake. In addition, the local repair maintains the part shape, doesn’t change the acoustic liner properties, does not block the drain channels in the OEM part or hold moisture.

 

OPM Research has announced that its well-received market research publication, the “Report on the Key Websites & Marketplaces for the Aviation/Aerospace Market” has been reduced in price to under $200 USD. This special pricing has been formalized due to a positive reaction from the market. This unique publication addresses the most important websites and marketplaces that facilitate the trading and repair of aircraft parts, primarily in the Aftermarket. OPM Research has also launched a completely re-vamped website for this product, which provides an increased amount of information for potential customers.

This is one of the first, and possibly the most comprehensive report of its kind on this topic. It gives a snapshot of the current key providers of web-based parts-related trading services for the Aviation Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) industry. The report examines significant market trends and emerging solutions that will affect both the trade of aircraft parts and how solutions are delivered. Also provided is a non-technical overview of various industry trading mechanisms and technology such as ATA Spec 2000, IATA Type B and Type X (XML) messaging, (PKI) digital signatures and electronic forms (e8130-3s). This unique resource provides all aviation entities which handle aircraft parts with a better understand this important market niche, and the key fundamentals that affect it. These include which types of messaging to use, whether general-purpose search engines (Google, Yahoo) are better than specialized industry sites to locate or advertise spare parts, among other topics.

“The goal of the report is to provide the entire aerospace and aviation community with a means by which to better determine how to optimize their trading (buying or selling) activities, as well as to provide their personnel with a useful reference guide on trading activities, and how to optimize them,” says John Pawlicki, the principal behind OPM Research.

Thomas Cook Belgium, Condor Berlin and Condor Flugdienst are long-term customers of Swiss-AS. Recently, the remaining members of the Thomas Cook Group (TC UK and Scandinavia) decided to replace their legacy system with AMOS. The decision to implement AMOS group-wide across Europe was the result of the latest assessment of the group’s requirements and the new corporate strategy. The benchmark established AMOS as the preferred solution for the travel group.
“We are very pleased to cooperate with the entire Thomas Cook Group. The fact that AMOS is well-known in the group and has now been chosen for all group members, re-confirms AMOS’ functional maturity as well as the good relationship Swiss-AS holds with its customers,” says Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO of Swiss-AS.
Paul Horstink, Head of Group Maintenance organization at Thomas Cook, states: “The decision to bring all the maintenance organizations of the Thomas Cook airlines together in a Group Maintenance Organization has been made a year ago and we are well advanced in the implementation phase. AMOS is a huge enabler to maximise the synergy effects in bringing together the organisations”.

Multi-Entity Support for Five AOCs
One of Swiss-AS’ latest developments, the Multi-Entity Support, was one key factor for being awarded the contract. This function hosts and integrates multiple financially independent companies on one system, allowing an airline group with subsidiaries in different countries to consolidate all activities on one system while still complying with local regulations. The Multi-Entity Support in AMOS enables the Thomas Cook Group to manage its multiple AOCs, with multiple financial accounting, maintenance programs and local authorities within one system while realising substantial synergies on group level.

 

From a CNN Report

A CNN report states:

“Out of an abundance of caution,” American Airlines said Tuesday it would inspect 47 Boeing 757 airplanes after seats on two of the company’s jetliners came loose.

A Boeing 757 from Boston to Miami carrying 175 passengers diverted to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday when three seats in row 12 came loose shortly after takeoff. A second American Boeing 757 returned to JFK on Monday morning after a similar seat issue was discovered.

“Originally, American planned to evaluate the seats on eight Boeing 757 airplanes, but out of an abundance of caution, the decision was made to proactively evaluate a total of 47 Boeing 757 airplanes that have the same model Main Cabin seats with a common locking mechanism,” company spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said in a statement.

More

Portugália Airlines (PGA) has successfully turned off its legacy systems and started to manage its entire MRO data in AMOS recently.
Both the PGA project team and the Swiss AS onsite go-live support crew were well prepared which ensured the switch over went smoothly. This meant also that the interfaces to 3rd party systems were operational right from the start. In particular the data transfer was very well managed by PGA internally and in addition to the minimum data level, much historical data was migrated into AMOS. Prior to the big-bang go-live, all AMOS users (technicians and back office users) were trained and PGA decided on a combination of e-learning, train-the-trainer approach and traditional classroom training.

First AMOS customer gone live with underlying Oracle database
The highlight of the AMOS implementation at PGA is that AMOS was implemented for the first time relying on an Oracle database.
“We congratulate our launch customer PGA on the successful go-live and are pleased to offer our customers a wider choice with regard to the underlying database,” states Ronald Schaeuffele, CEO of Swiss-AS.
Swiss-AS had strategically focused on realising an AMOS version that is database independent and followed the market requirement to be more flexible in terms of predetermined databases.