march2021 - 12

COVER STORY

hile the engine MRO market has been sitting somewhat
idle this past year, as demand has taken a nosedive due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, the helicopter engine maintenance market hasn't been hit quite as hard, sometimes even having more demand in some areas. Since
its activity is strongly linked to protection and public
safety, the helicopter world has been less affected than
other commercial aviation sectors. " Medical transport,
anti-terrorism, sea and mountain rescue, fire-fighting
and aerial work missions must continue, whatever the
economic conditions, " noted Jean Souetre, vice-president marketing and
customer satisfaction for support and services at Safran Helicopter Engines.

Safran
Safran Helicopter Engines is dedicated
exclusively to the helicopter market.
Operating worldwide, it has more than
2,500 customers in 155 countries and 22,000
engines in service.
The company's latest generation of
engines has been designed with simple
maintenance in mind by featuring fewer
scheduled tasks and longer service intervals, and the components and accessories are easy to access, disassemble and
exchange. On its recently-certified Arrano,
engine of H160, servicing time is half that
of previous generation engines.
In parallel, Souetre notes operators benefit from Safran's new digital services, such
Expert link, a remote visual
assistance service, in use.
SAFRAN

as Health Monitoring, an engine-life data
tracking system enabling predictive maintenance, or Expert link, a remote visual
assistance service. All of Safran's digital
services are by-the-hour and contribute
to improving the efficiency of support.
Expert link, the new Health Monitoring
and SBH on-line launched at HAI Heli Expo
in 2020 have seen a lot of success with customers, Souetre explained. " The enrolment
rates continue to progress on both Health
Monitoring and SBH online services over
the last 12 months. Today, more than 600
customers use Health Monitoring for more
than 4,000 engines. Those who subscribe to
the 'Premium' level of Health Monitoring
have detailed reports that provide advice
on engine maintenance based on the health
trends and operations from our experts, "
Souetre said. " The feedback from customers

highlights how these services, and others
such as eSpares, online spare parts ordering service, save time and helps to avoid
errors: two very important factors for our
customers. "
Like most aerospace manufacturers,
Safran's business has been impacted by the
COVID-19 crisis, represented by a drop in
flight hours for operator customers and a
decline in orders from our helicopter manufacturer customers.
However, Safran Helicopter Engines
has maintained its activities throughout
the past year. Design offices, production,
customer support and MRO centers have
remained open. In strict compliance with
health protocol, the company has learned
to live with the virus while ensuring continuity of service for customers and their
missions, either in person or - with the
help of digital tools - remotely.
Souetre said the company has maintained strong performance in terms of
product development. " With our Arrano
and Aneto engines now certified, we are
ready to support the Airbus H160 and
Leonardo AW189K entry-into-service, " he
explained. " We are supporting Airbus in the
first development phase of its 'Guépard,' a
military variant of the H160. At the same
time, we continued bench testing Tech TP,
a turboprop demonstrator based on the gas
generator module of the Ardiden 3. "
Despite challenging times in 2020,
Safran celebrated the opening of its CAP
2020 industrial campus, in presence of by
the French Minister of the Armed Forces,
Florence Parly. " It is a 50M€ investment for
modernizing our MRO activity in Tarnos,
France, " Souetre noted. " The flagship for
support, Tarnos, is now doted with three
brand new buildings covering 33,000m 2 ,
two of which are dedicated to MRO and
state-of-the art repair capabilities. The
ambition for this new plant is to further
reduce our repair cycles by 30 percent,
ensure the highest safety levels and invest
in innovative repair solutions to bring costeffective services to our customers. "

Dallas Airmotive
Just because the industry is somewhat idle
does not necessarily mean maintenance

MARCH 2021

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

march2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2021