Services: A Worldwide Network for Heat Exchanger Solutions
In 2016, Liebherr-Aerospace opened its new facility in Saline, Michigan (USA) hosting a repair center for the cleaning, repair and re-coring of heat exchangers. And just recently, we were able to celebrate already the delivery of the 5,000th component. Our aim is to continue with the development of a worldwide network for cleaning and servicing heat exchangers in association with local licensed partners.
Our market feedback highlighted that, while Saline operations started very successfully, there was an increasing interest from the operators in offers for qualitative local services. These include cleaning the heat exchangers close to the aircraft operators’ maintenance centers in order to shorten the service times and optimize spares inventory. We are deploying a worldwide network to answer this demand, in association with a dozen of selected partners, under a license agreement. The partners will meet our stringent technical qualification criteria and will be positioned at key locations, such as Europe, Singapore, the Middle East, India and South America. In the UK, for example, we are working with our long-standing cooperation partner, Avia Technique, a member of the SK AeroSafety Group. The company has already been cleaning and testing heat exchangers for four years now.
Cleaning of a heat exchanger
Expertise and fast service
Every four years, or approx. every 12,000 flying hours, the heat exchangers, which are part of the air management system, must be inspected, cleaned and maintained – depending on the environment conditions, the routes and the frequency of use of the aircraft, the intervals must be reduced to avoid pollution clogging. Generally, a thorough cleaning of the components using high-pressure, ultra-sonic and immersion bath cleaning processes is sufficient. This is followed by a leakage and pressure test and minor repairs done locally. After this, the heat exchanger is ready for re-use. If the inspection reveals major cracks or irreversible clogging, the heat exchanger is completely overhauled by our specialists at Liebherr-Aerospace in Saline, Michigan (USA).
All partners and aircraft operators benefit today from the experience of the Liebherr-Aerospace experts. With this Heat Exchanger Cleaning Network we can roll out the servicing operation from the US into the whole world, and can offer our customers a faster and efficient support in their maintenance of aircraft.
