LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Rolls-Royce RR.L said it would add maintenance facilities and people to triple its capacity to fix problems with Trent 1000 engines that have grounded Boeing Dreamliner planes, but said this would not raise the cost of the work. FILE PHOTO: A view of one of two Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engines on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner during a media tour ahead of the Singapore Airshow on February 12, 2012. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo The compressor in the Trent 1000 package C engines that power Boeing's BA.N 787 Dreamliner jet is not lasting as long as expected, requiring inspections and forcing airlines to ground aircraft while the checks take place. That has led to complaints from some of Rolls’s airline customers as they must lease alternative planes to fly in the key summer holiday period, putting extra pressure on the engineer to speed up the process. Rolls said in a statement on Wednesday that it had a new inspection technique that meant it could check engines without removing them from the wings to help it meet a safety regulator’s deadline of June 9 for completing initial checks. About 30 of the affected aircraft, flown by airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand AIR.NZ, are grounded at any one time for checks, Rolls has said, and this is expected to peak at around 50 as inspections intensify as the deadline looms. The Trent 1000 issues are a blow for Rolls’s CEO Warren East, who has led efforts over the last three years to simplify Rolls to try to offset declines in older aero-engine programs and plunging demand for oil equipment. The company is due to hold a capital markets day on June 15. Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris said Rolls’s response to the problem was positive. “The bit in today’s statement that I think is most important is the pace at which Rolls-Royce is responding to this,” the analyst who has a “buy” rating on the stock said. Shares in Rolls traded down 0.7 percent at 820.8 pence, lagging the blue chip index .FTSE which was up 0.2 percent at 1150 GMT. FULL RESOURCES Rolls said it was using its “full resources” to address the Trent 1000 issue. “We are drawing on resource from across Rolls-Royce and have redeployed engineers and other experts to address the issue, growing the team by more than 200 people,” a company spokesman said. The financial implications of the problem had not changed from April, Rolls said. Rolls has said that the cash hit from the Trent problems should hit a peak of 340 million pounds ($450 million) in 2018 before falling in 2019, with the cost of the extra inspections covered by cutting discretionary spending elsewhere. Rolls has guided that 2018 free cash flow will come in at about 450 million pounds ($643 million), give or take 100 million pounds, which analyst Morris said gave the company enough leeway to withstand the Trent 1000 problems as long as they did not worsen. Some 380 of the affected engines are in service. About one third of these need some form of repair work, according to media reports which have not been disputed by the engine maker. Repairs take weeks. Engines that are given the all clear return to flying but are subject to further checks under safety rules which only allow the engines to be flown a certain number of times before repeat inspections are required. Beyond the inspections, Rolls has been working to develop a replacement part to provide a permanent fix. It said this would be tested in early June and it aimed to have the part ready to install by later this year, bringing forward the date from 2019. Rolls’s efforts to date have not been enough to satisfy some airlines. IAG ICAG.L, owner of British Airways, may have to ground five or six 787 Dreamliners with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines this summer and Chief Executive Willie Walsh said earlier in May he was disappointed by Rolls-Royce's response.<doc-sep>Rolls-Royce has increased maintenance capacity for affected engines, introduced a new inspection technique and the accelerated a permanent fix for the issue. Rothbiz reported in April that further engine checks were taking place after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ordered airlines to replace some Trent 1000 engines on their aircraft.Corrosion-related fatigue cracking was discovered on IP blades in 2016. It was announced that the manufacturer would have to replace turbine blades on the entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners powered by its Trent 1000 engine.The Trent engines include key components manufactured by Rolls-Royce in Rotherham. The most advanced turbine blade casting facility in the world was officially opened on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham in 2014. There are two types of turbine blade manufactured at the 150,000 sq ft facility: high pressure (HP) and intermediate pressure (IP) single crystal blades.Chris Cholerton, president – civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, said: "We fully recognise the unacceptable levels of disruption our customers are facing. We are intensely focused on minimising this and we have set our teams the challenge of doing everything we can to recover our customers' operations as swiftly as possible. We are drawing on the full resources of Rolls-Royce to address the issue and I’ve seen great teamwork and innovative thinking both across our organisation and in our partnership with Boeing." Images: Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce has trebled the number of affected engines it can work on at any point through the development of lean workscope methods, reducing the amount of time that an engine spends in maintenance. The majority of work takes place in facilities in Singapore, Heathrow and Derby and plans to further increase this capacity are being developed.A permanent fix to the IP compressor rotor issue seen on Package C engines is also being developed. The revised compressor blade has been installed in a test engine and will begin testing in early June. Rolls-Royce aim to have first parts available for engine overhaul in late 2018, rather than 2019 as originally planned.The engineering and design team has been able to accelerate the development of the new blade through a combination of the latest computing capability, "fast make" competencies within the supply chain, and the development of a dedicated facility in Derby to build engines on which the blades will be tested.Cholerton added: "While we have made important progress in supporting our customers, there is clearly more to do and we will not rest until we have ensured the engine meets the high standards our customers rightly expect. "Our teams remain focused on the task in hand and while we expect the number of aircraft affected to rise in the short term, as the deadline for the completion of initial inspections approaches, we are confident that we have the right building blocks in place to tackle the additional workload this will create. "In April Rolls-Royce said it would reprioritise spending to mitigate the costs and kept its 2018 free cash flow guidance unchanged at about £450m.<doc-sep>Rolls-Royce has finally given more information on how it aims to solve the problems with the Trent 1000 Package C engines that power some 787s, while recognizing the “unacceptable levels of disruption” its customers continue to face. The UK aero-engine company said Wednesday it is accelerating the development of the permanent fix to the intermediate pressure compressor rotor issue on Package C engines, and that it has installed a revised compressor blade in an engine scheduled for testing in early June. “We aim to have first parts available for engine overhaul in late 2018, rather than 2019 as originally planned,” Rolls-Royce civil aerospace president Chris Cholerton said. Rolls is also speeding the development of the new blade and a dedicated facility in Derby to build engines on which it will test it. Additionally, Rolls-Royce developed new on-wing inspection techniques to support airlines in meeting the requirements of the airworthiness directives “as quickly and efficiently as possible,” it said. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency in April issued airworthiness directives for Trent 1000-powered Boeing 787 operators mandating the completion of additional intermediate compressor inspections by June 9. About 380 Trent 1000 Package C engines operate in service and needed inspections on their compressors. The majority passed inspection and therefore continue to fly, according to a Rolls-Royce spokesman who declined to enumerate “majority.” An executive close to the Trent 1000 Package C engines issue told AIN that 29 percent of the powerplants have failed the initial checks required by regulators and remain grounded. Some 80 percent of the engines have undergone checks by now, the executive said. Cholerton admitted Rolls-Royce expects the number of aircraft affected “to rise in the short term, as the deadline for the completion of initial inspections approaches,” though it remains tight-lipped on the actual numbers. “We are not confirming number of aircraft grounded,” the spokesman said. Operators have grounded some 30 to 35 Boeing 787s due to the engine problem and that number will likely rise to a peak of 50 because of a sudden rush of inspections for the June deadline. “We fully recognize the unacceptable levels of disruption our customers are facing,” said Cholerton. “[We are] intensely focused on minimizing this and we have set our teams the challenge of doing everything we can to recover our customers’ operations as swiftly as possible.” Along with accelerating a permanent fix for the issue, he noted, the OEM has tripled maintenance capacity for affected engines in a matter of months and introduced a new inspection technique. Roll-Royce realigned resources and now has assigned 200 people to the program.<doc-sep>
Rolls-Royce’s Derby site is playing a key role in helping to find a permanent fix to a problem with one of its engines that is causing “unacceptable” levels of disruption to airlines. The problem involves the Trent 1000, an engine designed and developed at the engineering giant’s civil aerospace division at Sinfin, which powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Blades on some of the engines have worn out sooner than expected, forcing airlines to disrupt their schedules and ground aircraft to allow them to be inspected more regularly. Operators including Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and British Airways have all been forced to ground aircraft while they await temporary fixes. (Image: Derby Telegraph) Rolls-Royce has now issued an update on its efforts to tackle the issue, including coming up with a permanent fix to the problem. The firm has said it has trebled its maintenance capacity for affected engines, with its facilities in Derby, Heathrow and Singapore all involved. Meanwhile, it is also accelerating the development of the permanent fix. Rolls-Royce’s engineering and design team at Derby has devised a revised compressor blade, which has now been installed on a test engine. This test engine will be put through its paces in early June. If all goes well, Rolls-Royce aims to have the first new parts available to install in Trent 1000 engines currently in service before the end of the year - and not in 2019 as originally planned. Despite the progress being made, Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce’s president of civil aerospace, conceded that airlines using the Trent 1000 were facing “unacceptable levels of disruption”. He said: “We are intensely focused on minimising this and we have set our teams the challenge of doing everything we can to recover our customers’ operations as swiftly as possible. “We are drawing on the full resources of Rolls-Royce to address the issue and I’ve seen great teamwork and innovative thinking both across our organisation and in our partnership with Boeing.” (Image: Rolls-Royce plc) Rolls-Royce is set to take a substantial financial hit because of the Trent 1000 issues - not just from the additional maintenance checks and the development of new parts, but also in terms of compensating airlines for the disruption caused. The firm has previously said that it will cost around £340 million. This week, Rolls-Royce said this estimate remained unchanged. To help off-set these additional costs, the company has said it would be re-prioritising its spending on “discretionary” items. Mr Cholerton said: “While we have made important progress in supporting our customers, there is clearly more to do and we will not rest until we have ensured the engine meets the high standards our customers rightly expect. “Our teams remain focused on the task in hand and while we expect the number of aircraft affected to rise in the short term, as the deadline for the completion of initial inspections approaches, we are confident that we have the right building blocks in place to tackle the additional workload this will create.” We've launched our very own app for Android and Apple devices which can be tailored to deliver the news and sport that you're interested in. To download the IOS app click here. To download the Android app click here.