Upgrading an aircraft engine test cell

The test cell is a crucial installation at SSB, since it is used for testing the maintained engines prior to delivery (see also ‘Time is money in aircraft engine maintenance’). The cell is a structure supporting the aircraft engine while it is operated, replicating real-life conditions. This allows SSB to measure the engine’s actual thrust and compare it with specifications and performance requirements.

A variety of jobs

The recent introduction of a new generation of engines (called LEAP) in a number of Boeing, Airbus and Comac airliners meant the SSB test cell had to be adapted. Yves Lagrange explains: “The new LEAP engines are larger than the CFM engines we have been maintaining and testing for several decades now. For this reason it turned out we needed to extend the main platform. We also had to install an additional monorail hoist to be able to carefully bring the engine accessories into position. In addition, conducting development tests on the new LEAP engines entails a greater workload, including increasingly complex data acquisition compared to the usual maintenance tests we perform on the CFM engines. Instead of checking 100 parameters, we now have to measure ten times that, requiring us to install a whole battery of electronic devices on the platform, some of them fairly hefty. And finally, new safety regulations meant we needed to adapt pathways, stairs, ladders, and banisters.”

One company for the whole package

At first, Lagrange and his team thought they needed to contract at least two or three different companies for the job. But during negotiations for the monorail hoist solution, he learned that TCS actually has great expertise in all of the above-mentioned areas. “TCS has been our preferred crane supplier and crane maintenance partner for quite a long time now and we are very satisfied with their work,” elaborates Lagrange. “But we were not aware that in fact they are also steel construction experts and general contractors. I don’t know of many companies with in-house expertise in all of these fields, so we seized the opportunity to hand over the whole package to them. It proved to be a great decision, their construction staff and craftsmen are just as reliable as their crane maintenance personnel.”

Great flexibility and rigour

Lagrange especially remembers the issue he had with the LEAP adaptor, the structure that enables the engine to be lifted and brought into position in the test cell. “The adaptor was made by a third-party,” Lagrange explains, “but once it arrived we found that it didn’t fit into our test cell supporting structure. It was a clear mistake, but TCS fixed that for us. They found a way to rearrange our structure so as to accommodate both the new LEAP adaptor and the old CFM adaptor. A proof of their great flexibility, ingenuity and rigour.”