Pratt & Whitney’s (P&W) Eagle Services Asia aftermarket operation in Singapore has boosted maintenance output by 40% in two years after opening a second maintenance facility and automating manual processes.
Indeed, the site is seen as a key innovation hub for the wider business, with technologies pioneered by Eagle in Singapore to be rolled out across other MRO facilities in the engine maker’s network.
“We are really on a journey of transforming the whole [geared turbofan] GTF MRO,” says Eagle general manager Gilbert Sim. “We have strengthened the partnership of humans and robots.”
P&W’s efforts come as it works to ramp up maintenance output, partly to cope with surging demand driven by its global recall of PW1100G geared turbofans (GTFs), one of two power options for Airbus A320neo-family jets alongside the CFM International Leap-1A.
The recalls are due to a manufacturing problem using powdered metal that can cause components to fail early.
Eagle maintains both PW4000s and PW1100Gs, the latter composing the bulk of its work. It performs heavy maintenance, including recall-related activities, Sim says.
P&W expanded the Eagle facility in 2024 when it supplemented its original “Eagle 1” operation with a newly opened site nearby dubbed “Eagle 2”.
GTFs first arrive at Eagle 2, where they are inspected to determine their overall condition and to catalogue their components. A robotic camera system, a collaborative robot or ’cobot’ snaps 200-300 photographs of newly inducted engines and generates automated reports, requiring 90% fewer man-hours than the historic process.
After disassembling the GTFs, Eagle trucks them to Eagle 1, where workers and robots complete detailed component inspections before reassembling and testing the turbofans.
At Eagle 1, robots snap close-up photographs of the integrated blade rotors found inside GTF high-pressure compressors to identify degradation and other defects, completing in 1h inspections that would otherwise require 3h.
Eagle also automated the reassembly process.
For instance, inside the ’automated core stack’ cell, a long-armed robot dubbed “Athena” picks up and assembles high-pressure compressor (HPC) components including heat shields, compressor intermediate cases and diffuser cases, fitting them together. The components are heated as required so they expand to ensure proper fit.
Similarly, a robot called “Alfred” assembles HPC rotors, while a soon-to-enter service robot called “Atlas” assembles low-pressure compressor components.
