Page 27 - AAA OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2019 Online Magazine

[ MAINTENANCE REPAIR OVERHAUL ]
to our customers more rapidly than ever we experienced before,” benefits delivered by 8tree’s dentCHECK tool.
says Jakob Straub, Head of Aircraft Services & Line Maintenance However, they have been hamstrung – primarily
at the Zurich-based MRO. “As a result, true value is added to our due to corporate IT restrictions – in sharing
customer having his aircraft returned back to service more quickly damage content within and outside their orga-
and efficiently.” nizations. 8cloud overcomes these IT barriers,
Purpose-built for the aviation maintenance industry, the com- by offering a secure, browser-based interface
pletely wireless 3D scanner tool with integrated AR delivers for reporting, storing and sharing content from
real-time ‘go/no-go’ answers at the push of a single-button, signifi- 8tree or other 3rd party inspection tools.”
cantly reducing damage-mapping and reporting times, compared “As an aircraft structures engineer, I clearly
to traditional manual methods that use depth-gauges and straight- see benefits of integrating dent & buckle with
edges. This shortens aircraft Turn-around-Time (TaT), which further dentCHECK,” says Kristinn Palsson, CEO, dent
reduces lost revenues and very directly improves operational effi- & buckle. “All relevant data concerning dam-
ciency for airlines. Detailed case-studies published by TAP-M&E ages and repairs is stored in one place and
and easyJet, as well as news from Airbus’ Flightline, DHL-Express tracked from the initial discovery, which is now
and Zeppelin, demonstrate that dentCHECK reduces inspection standardized with dentCHECK – dent & buckle
and reporting times by up to 90%. adds value to with its 3D interface and keeps
on tracking through the repair stages to the
Adding Capabilities end of the service life of the aircraft. The data
Buoyed by the enthusiastic response from airlines and MROs to that has until now mostly been recorded on
dentCHECK, 8tree rolled out new offerings this year. After launch- paper we can now use for fleetwide analysis,
redelivery or audits and learn much more about
the operation of the fleet.”
dentCHECK pano is a response to requests
from the industry, says Erik Klaas, CTO, 8tree.
“They wanted us to develop a quick and seam-
less method to map entire aircraft bays, similar
to how dentCHECK already allows them to
perform quick spot-checks on smaller areas.
dentCHECK pano allows them to do just that,
producing a digital collage that can be archived
for comparison during future maintenance. In
early customer trials, pano has directly driven
more than 95% time-savings compared to tra-
ditional methods.”
According to 8tree, dentCHECK pano can
inspect, stitch and report an entire aircraft bay
in less than 10 min, compared to 3-4 hours
using other methods. “This has significant
upside implications for RVSM measurements,”
says Klaas.

ing 8cloud, Blend-Out Assistant and Multi-damage report offerings Endorsement by OEMs
at MRO Middle East in Dubai, the company unveiled dentCHECK The widespread attention that dentCHECK has
pano at MRO Americas in April. According to Arun Chhabra, CEO, received in the industry comes in the wake of
8tree, the combined impact of these new offerings enhances main- endorsements by multiple OEMs. Airbus has
tenance efficiency by orders of magnitude, “far in excess of the published multiple approvals of dentCHECK
90% time-savings enabled by the dentCHECK tool alone.” in its Tool Equipment Manuals for dent-map-
8cloud is a secure, cloud-based damage reporting platform that ping on metallic aero-structures and composite
expedites the sharing of inspection content and reports between cabin floorboards. dentCHECK also expedites
all stakeholders in the aviation maintenance industry. Designed blend-out remaining thickness measurement
to handle data from any inspection tool, 8cloud is now integrated of uniform thickness panels as per proce-
within dent & buckle’s aviation damage tracking platform. According dures outlined in Airbus’ SRM 51-11-00 and
to Erik Klaas, CTO, 8tree, the company plans to develop similar SRM 51-11-13. Similarly, Boeing’s Service Letter
8cloud integration interfaces to other popular maintenance soft- recognizes the use of 3D scanning tools, such
ware systems, at no additional cost to end-users. as dentCHECK, for dent-mapping on all of its
“We created 8cloud to address a chronic unmet need in how the commercial aircraft family types. dentCHECK
aviation industry shares damage analyses amongst key stakehold- performance has also been formally recognized
ers”, says Klaas. “Over the past few years, airlines, MRO and OEMs for all De Havilland Dash8 (formerly Bombardier
have continued to rapidly embrace the inspection and reporting Q400) and Bombardier CRJ aircraft.

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