Drives Real-Time Savings Via Reduced Engine Maintenance Costs, Other Factors

Pratt & Whitney Canada has launched several innovative solutions and offerings to deliver high value to its turboshaft customers around the world. These innovations provide real-time savings, reduce costs, create stable maintenance environments and enhance aircraft availability for the company’s growing customer base in this segment.

“We know this is a demanding time for many segments of the helicopter industry, and we are focused on enhancing our service and support across the board,” said Irene Makris, Vice President, Marketing, P&WC. “Whether it’s extended time between overhauls (TBOs), optimized maintenance plans or promotions tailored specifically to turboshaft customers or preventative alerts and prognostics for troubleshooting potential issues before they happen, we’re working diligently to ease the pressure on our customers and give them enhanced services, availability and commercial solutions that are aligned with their evolving business needs.”

To reduce engine operation costs for its customers, P&WC increased the basic TBO of its PW210 engine early in its lifecycle, from 3,500 hours to 4,000 hours, extending time-on-wing, prolonging service events and reducing maintenance costs by over 10 percent for operators. The extension applies to all PW210 engines. It is a testament to the strong design and performance of the PW210 engine and P&WC’s confidence in its durability and reliability.

What’s more, P&WC recently announced that the basic TBO for the power section of the PT6B-37A engine was extended by a full 50 percent – from 3,000 hours to 4,500 hours – and extended the clutch inspection interval for the PT6T-9 engine by 60 percent, from 1,250 to 2,000 hours, leading to a reduction in associated maintenance costs for operators. All engines in service are eligible.

“Keeping our turboshaft customers flying at reduced operating costs is a top priority for us,” remarked Makris. “From fine tuning planned maintenance intervals by extending TBO limits to cutting our Eagle Service Plan (ESP) rates, we’re committed to creating more savings for operators any way we can.”

P&WC’s Flight Acquisition, Storage and Transmission (FAST) solution for engine diagnostics, prognostics and health management is another way the company is helping turboshaft customers to reduce costs and operate more efficiently. It captures, analyzes and sends flight data recorder and engine trend, health and usage data to helicopter customers within minutes of landing, enabling them to maximize aircraft availability, optimize maintenance planning, reduce operating costs, and avoid delays and cancellations. Phase two of the solution will also include automated power assurance checks that will help decrease pilot workload.

(Source: Pratt & Whitney Canada news release)

FMI: www.pwc.ca