Page 36 - AAA APRIL - MAY 2017 Online Magazine

Mro FeAtUre teCHnoLogY

The use of drone technology
for aircraft maintenance
is here to stay. The
availability of increasingly
sophisticated sensors that
can be carried onboard a
drone, will expand the roles
the drones are used for
used inside hangars. The SITA unmanned to 200 million Euros for the period up to 2018. infrared camera is used to record the heated
vehicles carry 38-megapixel color cameras “Innovation offers more than just tremendous inspection area in real time. Cracks in the
and five ultrasound sensors that work at potential for differentiating ourselves from region being inspected have a characteristic
up to 6 meters. Analysts say untethered the competition, it’s also the source of temperature profile that clearly differentiates
UAVs are best suited for inspections inside profitable cost savings for both Lufthansa them from the background, because they heat
structures owned by airlines, while tethered Technik and its customers,” he says. more than the surrounding area. With the help of
drones should be used outside on airport Lufthansa Technik, which is on the suitable analytical software, even the smallest
tarmacs. road to “MRO 4.0,” has developed many cracks can be identified.
Analysts also warn that tethered or not, intelligent machines and transformative In partnership with Donecle, a start-up, AFI
sensors and algorithms must keep UAVs a technologies. Mobile devices, 3D printers, KLM E&M is also trialing a UAV solution able to
minimum distance from the fuselage to avoid self-learning robots, drones and digital perform inspection flights using an autonomous
damage. assistance systems (smart glasses) have trajectory around the aircraft thanks to laser
Tests have proven the unmanned vehicles become indispensable aids in diagnosis and positioning technology and integrated sensors.
can capture video images; the next step is repair procedures, design engineering and Following an initial campaign involving some
automating detection of defects. SITA is asking production. 50 test flights around A320s, AFI KLM E&M
airlines for libraries of digital images of defects The company has also developed a robot- is embarking on a second, more intensive
for comparison with results collected by UAVs. supported process for inspecting metallic campaign, with two flights a week over a period
These geo-located images can be taken and aircraft fuselage structures. The result of of five months designed to confirm and test
stored in the cloud for video recognition, and the research project, “TCD - Thermographic system reliability. The objective is to integrate
to pinpoint areas for an engineer’s later visual Crack Detection”, is a mobile robot, equipped this inspection method as part of a maintenance
inspection. Major maintenance, repair and with a thermographic probe unit, which program at the end of the test period. AFI KLM
overhaul (MRO) companies are also focusing on passes over the outer skin of the aircraft E&M will market it in partnership with startup
innovation, as airframe, engine and component fuselage on defined routes, inspecting Donecle to the client airlines of its global MRO
OEMs are constantly trying to make their the surface for cracks in a short time. The network, according to a company official.
products last longer in service, be more reliable, robot, MORFI (Mobile Robot for Fuselage According to James Kornberg, Director
require less-frequent maintenance and be Inspection), weighing just 75 kilograms, is Innovation at AIR FRANCE KLM Engineering
easier to maintain. fitted with active vacuum pads, enabling it to & Maintenance, the company works hard
“Only an MRO provider with the most move and position itself even on vertical and to embed innovation in its culture. “We get
modern technologies delivers its customers overhanging sections of the fuselage. thousands of ideas…The most difficult
the maximum benefit,” says a spokesman Thermographic crack detection involves challenge is to implement the good ones.
for Lufthansa Technik. The company is heating the area of the fuselage surface to Management must choose the most promising
quadrupling its investment in innovation – be inspected by a few degrees with a brief ideas and commit money to them, knowing that
from 50 million Euros over the past five years electrical impulse induced using coils. An some will be unsuccessful,” he says.
36 MAINTENANCE REPAIR OVERHAUL APRIL / MAY 2017 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/AAA