Story ID: 454
P&WC Focuses on Prognostication
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: Through its FAST engine analysis, the engine maker is looking to make unscheduled repairs a thing of the past.
Word Count: 975
Proactivity has become one of the major buzzwords at Pratt & Whitney Canada, as the engine maker ever strives to eliminate unplanned repair events, improve its product dispatch availability and reduce operational costs for customers. “We at Pratt Canada have been on the journey for quite some time to drive availability of the powerplants, getting ahead of issues and driving towards a totally planned maintenance environment,” explained Bjorn Stickling, the OEM’s director of diagnostics, prognostics and health management.

To accomplish that, the company has several programs and initiatives to help it advise customers. Its wireless FAST (flight acquisition storage and transmission) data collection and retrieval system is available on its engines for the Dassault Falcon 7X and 8X; the Cessna Latitude and Caravan/Grand Caravan; the Bombardier Q400; and ATR turboprops.

This has helped the company build a large engine condition database. “We started back in 2011, so we’ve got a lot of experience now,” Stickling told AIN. “We have 1,500 FAST systems out there, 6,000-odd engines being monitored with this particular platform.”

The company is continually developing STCs to retrofit its older products with the sensor-based system, and has more than 55 currently. “Those STCs cover everything, from digital platforms where we connect to the avionics of flight data recorders, or our own engine controls, to the very manual with an analog-to-digital converter that we can hook into the analog sensors,” said Stickling.

A recent example is the PT6-powered King Air family. “We introduced it last year, and we keep adding variants to the STC,” he said. The latest iteration includes Garmin G1000-equipped examples of the turboprop twin with the launch customer being the Royal Flying Doctor fleet, which uses the system for detailed engine health monitoring both on takeoff and in cruise. The system can be configured to transmit through cellular or Wi-Fi and in most cases will transmit the data to Pratt & Whitney, which will send it back to the operator within 15 minutes of engine shutdown.

This week at EBACE, the company announced it is expanding the program to include the Pilatus PC-12NG. The launch customer is PlaneSense, which also signed up for Pratt’s power-by-the-hour Eagle Service Plan (ESP). For NetJets' new Cessna Citation Latitudes, each is equipped with the FAST platform that offloads data from the PW306D1 engine diagnostic unit, in addition to capturing full-flight streaming data from the Fadec, which helps the company ensure high reliability and dispatch rates.

According to Stickling, similar to the programs for the PW307 engines on the Falcon 7X and 8X, customers can now receive discounts when they receive P&WC’s full services on the PW306. “If you have FAST and you have the on-condition program from the service manual, then you qualify for the lower on-condition ESP rate,” he said.

These different interlocking programs “shows a confidence that when we can do that type of detailed prognostics," he added. "We can really make sure that the customer takes the right action at the right time. That’s when we can see the big availability improvements.”

The PW307 powered aircraft have achieved an enviable 99.94 percent dispatch reliability. The use of advanced prognostics have reduced unscheduled interventions for specific key availability drivers on PW307-powered aircraft—from 85 percent in 2015 to 20 percent in 2017," giving customers more than 50-plus usage hours to plan for the event, the company said. Another advantage of the company’s ESP program that will be discussed at EBACE (Booth O115A) is the flyaway kits given to participants of the ESP platinum program to carry aboard the aircraft. “These contain the standard components that we’ve deemed by analyzing the key characteristics of the engine wear and tear, said Stickling. “Operators, when they do have an issue and they are well away from base and can’t readily get a spare part, they can still turn around with that flyaway kit and get going quickly.” Currently, such kits are available for the 307A, 307D, 308C and 308C+ powerplants.
Oil Analysis Goes Live
After an extensive trial period, which involved monitoring of 5,000 engines, the company will launch its oil analysis technology business as a commercial venture at the end of June. Included in the initial lineup are the PW617, PW306A, and PT6-A62 and -A67B. Stickling explained the benefits from the technology as opposed to standard analysis of oil debris particles. “Not only is it 100 times more sensitive, but we can identify the alloys, so we know which component it is, and how concerned or not we may be about the rate of wear or deterioration of that component.”

To conduct the analysis, P&WC partnered with fellow Canadian company and filter debris specialist GasTops. Samples are sent to Ottowa-based GasTops and the results are returned to the customers via P&WC’s engine health monitoring web portal. “Once we have a fully-understood mission environment for the operator, and once we have the baselines, we can take samples less frequently,” said Stickling.

“If there is anything beyond the norm that needs attention, the call will come from Pratt & Whitney Canada to the customer advising them on the maintenance that’s required, or the additional sampling we want them to take.”

During the trial phase, the technology has proven to fit well within the engine maker’s proactive mantra. “We’ve been seeing significant successes now, on the 617 specifically, where we’ve proven in the field and in production that we can really see carbon seal wear well ahead of time, hundreds of hours ahead of time we can see it progress and then work with the customer to manage the issue to a convenient maintenance point.”