Page 12 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019 Online Magazine

“Boeing’s new 787 and Airbus’ A350 introduced quite a few new
technologies to the industry, not the least because of predominant
use of composite materials in their structures. As a result, consid-
ering the pace of new developments, the capabilities that MROs
need to win business in the next 5 to 10 years will clearly differ
from those needed today. For instance, with hundreds of the new
wide-bodies in use, and over 1600 more in production, there is a
growing demand for relevantly qualified maintenance staff with the construction of its new shop providing
skills aligned to the emerging needs of the industry,” says Kestutis cutting-edge technologies and innovative pro-
Volungevicius, the Head of Engineering and Training at FL Technics. cesses brought by the MRO Lab.

The aerospace MRO market for composite components is a “Innovation is central to our development,” says
developing market primarily driven by increasing acceptance of Franck Terner, Executive Vice-President AIR
composites in aerostructures, especially in primary aerostructures FRANCE KLM Engineering & Maintenance.
such as fuselage, wing structure, and empennage. The increasing “Developing our MRO Lab in the new facility
fleet of newly acquired aircraft across the globe and greater pen- means, for example, we will be able to deploy
etration of composites in aircraft such as the Airbus A350, Airbus new, less environmentally aggressive sanding
A380, and Boeing B787 is expected to further aid the market. tools, with less abrasive stripping methods
based on pressurized cornstarch blasting,
A latest MRO Survey, conducted by Oliver Wyman, indicates that for composites and metals alike.” The use of
over 34 per cent of MRO providers plan to invest into development scanning tools will be developed to check the
of composite repair capabilities in the next 5 years. Airbus has various surfaces to be treated or repaired.
recorded a total of over 850 firm orders for the A350 XWB from Hélios will also equip with state-of-the-art
over 45 customers worldwide. With these many A350 aircraft on machining tools for complex work on com-
order, and about 850 additional 787s projected to join the current
fleet of 228, there is a growing base of customers who will need
aftermarket support for the full range of their newly acquired tech-
nologies.

MRO Firms Gearing Up
Already MRO service providers have seen a real change in where
the repairs will have to be performed. Air France Industries KLM
Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) says the company
already performs repairs on wing, without taking down a compo-
nent or panel. “We choose to do so to make logistics easier and
shorten the turnaround time,” says James Kornberg, products and
business development manager for aerostructures.

In 2012, the Helios project was launched with the aim of upgrading
AFI KLM E&M’s industrial base and offering enhanced performance
to its clients. All the aerostructures facilities at Le Bourget in Paris
are being brought under a single roof to ensure an optimized aero-
structures offering. Late last summer AFI KLM E&M completed

12 | January/February 2019 WWW .GBP .COM.SG/ AAA