Collins Aerospace specializes in aerostructures, avionics, interiors, mechanical systems, mission systems, and power and control systems that serve customers across the commercial, regional, business aviation and military sectors. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the business has 71,000 employees across more than 300 locations of four businesses that form Raytheon Technologies Corporation. With a new facility in Malaysia, the company aims to enhance its foot strength in the Asia Pacific region. Collins Aerospace is also taking big strides towards sustainable flying with Hybrid Air Vehicle technology. The company’s latest plan includes making their new Malaysia MRO facility the epic center of maintenance activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Details on that and much more from Hart Duan – Regional Director, Asia-Pacific, Customer & Account Management, Collins Aerospace in an Exclusive Interview with MRO Business Today Read on…………………..
Q – Collins Aerospace has set up another MRO facility at Malaysia which is 3 times of the current MRO facility. This will be an important step forward in the Asia Pacific region. What challenges is the company expecting further growing in the region?
Ans – We think that most companies in our industry will face similar challenges such as a tight labor market and supply chain disruptions. Even more, so when MRO skillsets are very specific and highly dependent on product training. It typically takes up to six months to train a competent technician. Likewise, retaining skilled labor is crucial to ensure sustainable growth for our MRO operations.
Supply chain is also key in ensuring our MRO operations are primed with the right parts to support airline recovery. Demand forecasting is getting more difficult as the post pandemic recovery does not follow any conventional trends that we have experienced before.
Q – Can you brief our readers about Collins Aerospace’ collaboration in the U.K., with the University of Nottingham on a rollout placement of four, fuel-burning engines with 500-kilowatt electric motors for Hybrid Air Vehicles’ Airlander hybrid airship?
Ans – Collins Aerospace has produced the first working prototype of its 500 kilowatt electric motor suitable for the Airlander 10 aircraft under a partnership with Hybrid Air Vehicles and the University of Nottingham, and we’ve begun basic characterization testing of the motor at the University of Nottingham.
For the 2,000 RPM permanent magnet electric motor, Collins is targeting specific power density levels of 9 kilowatts per kilogram and 98% efficiency through the use of a novel motor topology and composite construction. We are designing the motor at our Electronic Controls and Motor Systems Center of Excellence in Solihull, UK, where we’re also developing our 1-megawatt electric motor and motor controller for the Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) regional hybrid-electric flight demonstrator. The two motors are part of Collins’ technology roadmap for the development of a family of electric motors that can be scaled up or down to meet the needs of various hybrid-electric and all-electric applications across multiple aircraft segments.
Airlander 10 is scheduled to begin hybrid-electric operation in 2026, followed by all-electric, zero-emission operation in 2030. To achieve this, the aircraft’s four fuel-burning engines will be replaced by Collins’ 500 kilowatt electric motors—beginning with the two forward engines in 2026 and the two rear engines in 2030.
Q – How does the OEM Account management and Sales support functions contribute to building relationships and solving the problems of Customers queries relating to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul functions of the Aircraft and Avionics? What steps have been taken by your company in this regards to enjoy continuous Customer support?
Ans – Asia Pacific is an important market in the future development and growth of Collins Aerospace, and we have served the region for over 40 years with about 10,000 employees at over 24 locations supporting our growing commercial aviation customer base here.
We understand the importance of customer intimacy and intend to work diligently on continuing to strengthen our direct relationships with airlines throughout the region, meeting frequently and exploring how best we can focus our efforts on providing the best support.
Coming out of the pandemic, we are working closely with our customers to consolidate and monitor demands as we recover, keeping in mind the many new lessons learned over the last 2 years. Collins is committing more resources to help us forecast more accurately and deal with constant changes.
With the imminent inflation and higher operations cost, airlines are focused on driving down total cost of ownership, and Collins can provide customers with tailored MRO solutions to meet their requirements with cost predictability being a key value add. We are also constantly looking at innovative ways to reduce cost, increase productivity and enhance our customers’ experience.
Q – The Singapore Innovation hub was set up in 2020 in collaboration with Economic Development Board (EDB). How does Robotics and AUTOMATION Engineering and Software development and Data Science and Artificial intelligence help the Singapore Innovation hub in MRO Activities.
Ans – The Singapore Innovation Hub develops new digital, automated, and additive manufacturing capabilities for its MRO and OEM operations locally and across Collins’ global network of facilities. Aside from the earlier projects that were previously released such as the Automated Vision Inspection System, we have progressed our developments in Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality (AR/VR), which will very much benefit the industry in training future technicians, and also troubleshooting components at a remote setting.
We are also gaining headway in our developments for turnkey supply chain and logistic solutions, to integrate both the Automated Mobile Robots (AMR) and RFID technologies for parts tracking, Store Light Pathfinder, and Receiving Shipping Visibility Automation (RSVA) to complement the needs of the fast-paced, high-volume business as the aerospace industry continues to pick-up to pre-pandemic levels.
Lastly, our fully equipped additive manufacturing (AM) facility continues to advance its capabilities and is now qualifying different types of AM technologies and materials that will be used in future aerospace products for both OEM and MRO applications. Collins AM capabilities in Singapore will include metal laser powder bed fusion, non-metallics, and Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing (EBAM) technologies.
