Feature Aerospace & Marine Increasing service levels
William Hughes has installed a new automated passivation plant at its UK headquarters in Stalbridge, Dorset, to provide more complete levels of service to its aerospace customers
Left: the new Nadcap approved passivation plant at William Hughes
he new passivation plant will help spring, bent wire form and assem- bly manufacturer, William Hughes, to not only reduce the significant lead time incurred by subcontracting this requirement, but will enable the company to provide another Nadcap process for its aerospace customers. The company’s special processes man-
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ager, Shaun Tattershall, explained, “The decision to start thinking about passiva- tion came about because one of our sig- nificant aerospace customers ceased this activity. As a result we began investigat- ing various plant options and initiated a request for processing approval from our major aerospace customer.” Tattershall was successful in sourc- ing machinery that was designed and manufactured to William Hughes’ pre- cise requirements and offered opti- mised control of the process in line with AMS 2700. He continued, “This helped with our forward plan of gain- ing a Chemical Processing Nadcap accreditation. We have also achieved Honeywell approval for passivation, and we appear on their approved pro- cessing supplier list.”
A novel solution
Representing a substantial investment, the new passivation plant at William Hughes offers functionality that includes no manual ‘dunking’ of component bas- kets from station to station, as with tradi- tional systems. Instead, the plant performs ‘fluid transfer’ - moving chemi- cal solutions from holding tanks into the main processing unit as required. The entire process is automatic and PLC controlled. Typical treatments are
Automation JULY/AUGUST 2013
nitric acid/sodium dichromate, and rinse cycles - followed by a final rinse in deionised water before a drying cycle. Other plant functionality includes an ultrasonic passivation facility and a rotary option where parts can be rotated through the solution, thus fill- ing air gaps in more complex and tubular type components, for example. Tattershall continued, “William Hughes has invested in training and professional advice for passivation, particularly from a control point of
view. For instance, we have to ensure that the tank solutions are controlled to the required specification tolerances at all times. We perform weekly checks in our laboratory to ensure these are correct, along with checking other fac- tors such as pH and conductivity.” Some checks are performed using intelligent machine functions. For instance, the PLC controlled passiva- tion plant at William Hughes will monitor and automatically adjust pH levels in the rinse water, as well as police conductivity in the final pro- cessing deionised water tank. “Ultimately the service will be offered to all customers - not just those in the aerospace sector - on a subcontract basis,” concluded Tattershall. “There will be three service levels - standard five day, express three day, and super express 24 hours (subject to any testing require- ments). All services are designed to focus on the customer for high quality and fast turnaround. The working envelope size available is 520 x 300 x 200mm.” Since installing the passivation plant,
William Hughes has relocated its Nadcap accredited heat treatment and ultrasonic cleaning equipment into the same area, thus creating a brand new process department.
William Hughes
www.wmhughes.co.uk T: 01963 363 377
Star Cruises signs long term Preventive Service contract with ABB
BB has won a long term service contract from Star Cruises for preventive maintenance of all ABB equipment onboard SuperStar Virgo for the next five years. The approximately US$1m contract was signed in the fourth quarter of 2012 and commenced on 1st January 2013.
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Star Cruises, the world’s third largest cruise company, has led cruise development in the Asia-Pacific region, where it operates seven vessels between the ports of Singapore, Port Klang (Malaysia) and Hong Kong. Star Cruises caters to Asian passengers as well as to North Americans, Europeans and Australians interested in Asian destinations. Its energy saving program has given Star Cruises a best in class status in the cruise industry. “A lot of effort and time has been put into coordinat- ing several small service providers to do the mainte- nance of Star vessels,” said Mikael Mattsson AVP Marine Operation, Star Cruises. “Through this service agreement, ABB becomes our sole service provider for equipment such as rotating machines, switchgears, transformers, drives, automation etc, considerably opti-
mising the maintenance process.” “The market is looking for ways to increase safety and up-time of vessel operation, while extending the lifecycle of their assets and making costs more pre- dictable,” said Heikki Soljama, head of ABB’s Marine and Cranes business. “ABB has responded very suc- cessfully to this demand with a wide range of service agreements that provide security to our customers’ operations and business. In ABB, this has been the basis for building long lasting and trusting relation- ships with ship managers and ship owners.” The service contract covers periodic maintenance visits scheduled when they least disturb SuperStar Virgo operations. A long term approach to maintenance and reduction in the variable costs caused by maintenance related actions make budgeting more predictable. Additionally, the contract ensures effective communica- tion and transparency between Star ship management and ABB engineers. ABB
www.abb.com/service T: 01224 592 123
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