Page 12 - AAA NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2013 Online Magazine

FEATURE COMPONENT REFURBISH

Component Refurbishing

– New or No Clue?

remanufactured, refurbished and re-used parts are becoming increasingly
important to cost effectiveness across a wide range of aircraft parts. But is the
practice safe in the long term? Can certification keep up? are operators sticking to
the rules, or cutting corners? We look at aspects of the second-hand trade.
By Jeremy Torr

“QUALITY IS bROkEN IN AEROSPACE, a spare part. Actually, a repaired part
as well as other industries,” says Daryl can be considered as reliable as a new
Guberman, president of Guberman-PMC, part,” notes David Vargas, Press Liaison
LLC a quality control consultancy. “All manager at ATR.
major registration companies operating Airframes are also in need of partial
in the United States are in fact overseen remanufacture on occasion, as patterns
by a single accreditation body located in of crack propagation become apparent.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.” Guberman has Modern inspection techniques and
been quoted as saying that this certification the development of repair schemes by
and accreditation process includes major aircraft manufacturers mean that whole
conflicts of interest – with the result that remanufactured replacement sections
safety is being compromised for the sake made up of frames, stringers and skins
of higher profits. can be quickly replaced – such as within
Indeed, a report from Loughborough Boeing 747s that are suffering from fatigue
Daryl Guberman, Guberman-PMC, LLC University in the UK has highlighted that cracking in areas of the fuselage, or as ATR
the very high cost of airframe, engine says, sub-structures like engines, landing
and system components in military and gears, propellers, complex calculators,
civil aircraft means there are plenty of and large structural parts (like doors,
remanufacturing and refurbishment ailerons or leading edges).
programmes currently running. The But with the increased sophistication
report catalogues instruments, control of “technical re-mining” components and
surface actuators and engines as all materials from everything from mobile
being “very rarely scrapped - instead phones to oil tankers, the temptation
they are brought up to standard by a to use an “almost the same, almost
remanufacturing programme.” This as new, almost as good” component is
approach means that for much reduced becoming increasingly common, if we are
cost, an aircraft can be “hot-swapped” to believe the reports. A BusinessWeek
with a good, working power plant or story claimed that at least four times in
instruments so that time on the ground is recent years, the Pentagon’s inspector
minimised – and at much less cost than general has found that major suppliers
fitting a new engine or navset. This, says had “collected excessive or unjustified
the report, is particularly important with payments on U.S. defense contracts” by
civil aircraft which can only earn revenues fitting used helicopter parts instead of
when in the air. installing new ones which were specified.
Manufacturers agree. “The principles And in 2011,the U.S. Senate Committee
of regulation aim at securing operations. on Armed Services collected data on a
If regulations are optimally followed, staggering 1800 cases involving a million
there is no risk taken when repairing suspect parts, according to a report from
12 ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2013 WWW.ASIANAIRLINES-AIRPORTS.COM