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key technical capability required part or feature for 8 to 12 hours be the first site to deploy the
for performing more robust a day can make your head hurt,” AI-guided white light robot inspec-
on-wing inspections in the future. said Sam Blazek, GE Aerospace tion in its MRO shop.
“This can reduce unnecessary services technology leader for
removals and downtime and white light inspection, who has “By using AI and robotics,
enable faster turnaround times worked at the company for seven service engineers can increase
to keep engines at peak opera- years. the speed and efficiency of
tional availability.” part inspections while improv-
ing the consistency of their
“Nor is the platform exactly results,” says Jon Hootman, GE
Risks Involved ideal. It’s a fixed rotational Aerospace’s engineering direc-
Some of the most critical parts positioner that you can move tor of the Services Technology
of an aircraft are located at the up or down — that’s it,” said Acceleration Center. “This also
very center of its power, like the Blazek, who used to inspect parts represents the first time as a
exquisitely machined nickel-based “caveman style,” by hand, with a business that we’re able to fully
disks that bear the blades of a jet flashlight and mirror. “You’re con- capture, digitally, all character-
engine’s high-pressure turbine. stantly twisting your head, eyes, istics of a part in service and
Spinning at tremendous speeds and neck as you manipulate catalog the data throughout the
near the engine’s core, these mirrors and flashlights to focus part’s lifetime in service in a cen-
high-precision HPT disks require on each individual feature of the tralized repository.”
painstaking scrutiny of their parts, and the interpretation of
surfaces, accounting for every what the inspector sees is as New Smart Factory in
dent, fretting, scratch, or bit of variable as the humans doing Singapore
corrosion. the physical work.”
GE Aerospace had recently
Even the most minor anomaly on GE Aerospace’s new AI-guided announced that it is investing
such life-limited parts requires “white light robot” inspection may USD$11 million (SGD$15M) to
professional eyes to determine solve this seemingly intractable transform its Singapore aircraft
which engineering disposition problem, while providing a path engine repair facility into a state-
applies — whether it should be toward similar solutions in other of-the-art ‘smart factory’ that will
accepted, repaired, or rejected. realms of MRO. revolutionise engine repair and
But these eyes typically belong to expand workforce skills to support
a single human being, and it can This fall, the Services Technology the new technologies.
be tiring. Acceleration Center (STAC),
situated five miles from GE’s The increasing adoption of
“First of all, staring at the same Cincinnati headquarters, will AI-powered robotics is driven by
24 | NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2024 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/AAA
