New digitalised inspection technology replaces manual measurements and recordings
An airplane was hit by a strong hailstorm. A thorough investigation now begins to determine the damage to the aircraft, assess its airworthiness and thoroughly document the damage. If no clear and complete documentation is guaranteed, there may be lengthy “negotiations” about the extent of the damage, at the latest when there is a change of ownership or operator. AviTrader spoke with Leonard Buck from 8tree and Christian Roulin from AMROS Global about how new digital tools are helping to assess and document aircraft structural damage.
AviTrader MRO: Christian and Leonard, what are your experiences with the assessment of dents and buckles and what problems can arise when returning an aircraft?
Christian Roulin: Basically, assessments on an operational aircraft are conducted under time pressure. Consequently, it is often seen that the documentation quality needed for a lease return or an airworthiness inspection is not fulfilling the required standard. This leads to double efforts on the maintenance side obtaining the undocumented information or conducting a complete re-assessment or repair replacement to fulfill the standard. The negative aspect of such an activity is, on one side, the extra/double costs, but on the other as well the reduction of the asset when a repair is to be replaced due to further oversized attachment installations.
Leonard Buck: Our customers keep telling us that dent-mapping is very time-consuming. The more dents you face, the more tedious it gets. With the ever-rising workforce shortage in the industry, especially the aftermarket, companies seek solutions to max out their workers' time on the shop floor. Digital tech can help to improve productivity here.
AviTrader MRO: 8tree offers its “dentCHECK as-a-Service”. What is behind it and what distinguishes you from the competition?
Leonard Buck: Our dentCHECK tool solves the daily challenges AMTs face on the shop floor. Time-consuming, error-prone, and tedious dent-mapping. With the push of a button, dentCHECK delivers instantly actionable measurement results of dents and other damages. No post-processing, no surface preparation. Under the umbrella of dentCHECK-as-a-Service and together with our industry partners, we enable MROs and Airlines to benefit from dentCHECK on a project basis. No CAPEX overheads for the customer. Our team flies out to support your aircraft transition or hail damage mapping project on a fixed price per panel basis.
AviTrader MRO: As a technical service provider and CAMO organization, you are often involved in assessing damage to the aircraft. You work together with 8tree and are cooperation partners. What are your experiences with “dentCHECK as-a-Service”.
Christian Roulin: It is an absolute asset partnering with 8tree since 8tree, as the OEM and developer of the tool, will assist with in-depth know how on the application possibilities not limited to the use of the measuring equipment but as well the use of the reporting software.
This partnership is an asset for everyone in such a project, and the customer can directly benefit from it.
AviTrader MRO: The damage is stored digitally. Is this data made available to the owner of the aircraft and the maintenance companies ahead of time?
Leonard Buck: It all depends on the individual case and customer needs. We are in the business of helping. In some cases, we only deliver digital damage reports; in other cases, we also cover the engineering part, including OEM-communication. Ultimately, the customer receives all results captured during the damage assessment.
Christian Roulin:
A well-maintained structure damage/repair file and its dossiers, including all the needed supporting documents, can be shared with any organization at any time.
If desired and when the Publication Management and the IT infrastructure of the CAMO organization allows it, such files can be published transparently at any time.
AviTrader MRO: Your service is offered worldwide. How is the order typically placed?
Christian Roulin: We are globally present and have subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Orders typically come in directly to our respective sales teams and response time is usually within 15 minutes with on-site presence in less than 24 hours. Need a specific solution that requires careful planning? We are reachable via [email protected] or contact us on LinkedIn.
Leonard Buck: Get in contact, and we will figure it out! We are excited to hear from you.
