SUPPLY CHAIN I PARTNERSHIPS
INVISIBLE ALLIES
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics’ global marketing leader, Aerospace, Nicolas Poussineau explains why the key to safety, performance and brand assurance isn’t always in the parts you can see.
and closely monitored by government authorities, such as the FAA in the US, EASA in Europe, and the CAA in the UK, as well as by private and public watchdogs around the world. Any failure in an aircraft’s safety procedures or operational performance can lead to costly delays, possible investigation and censure, and carries the potential of fatally damaging the reputation (and brand) of a carrier or aircraft manufacturer. It’s well understood throughout
the industry, therefore, that safety, performance and brand assurance rely in no small part on the consistent and continued operation of any and every part of an aircraft. From the wings, rudder and engines, down to the very smallest and most hidden components, each piece plays an important part in ensuring the safe and timely
IN THE SKIES S
Saint-Gobain’s critical connections technologies: Said to be ideal for floor-to-floor applications, aircraft monuments, and galleys
afety and performance lie at the very heart of the aerospace industry – it’s highly regulated
flight records upon which carriers and manufacturers alike stake their reputations.
Invisible allies Any modern aircraft is a highly complex machine. Even as technology improves and advances in design are made, a passenger aircraft is one of the most complex transportation vehicles in use. A modern Boeing 777, for example, has an average of three million parts. The Boeing 747-400 had closer to six million. Average passengers may focus their
attention on the larger pieces of an aircraft, but industry insiders are well aware that a problem with any of these parts can be enough to keep a plane on the ground, cause it to fail a safety inspection, or just ruin a passenger’s journey and cause an airline to lose customers. Consequently, time, effort and money are all invested in designing and creating even the smallest parts – from seals to gaskets, and from tubing to
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interior fittings – to maintain an airline manufacturer/airline’s reputation for keeping passengers airborne and keeping them safe. For example, seals may not be obvious
to passengers, but they are crucial to an aircraft’s operation. Called upon to perform in some of the most challenging conditions known to commercial applications – from high pressures and temperatures to chemical degradation and erosion – they are some of the most important parts on an aircraft. If a seal fails, it can compromise the aircraft’s performance. When developing a seal, aircraft manufacturers need to evaluate each application to determine the type and composition of materials they should employ. Often – especially for complex seal requirements like those on flaps - the best options available are engineered solutions that include fabric reinforcement or a compound of several materials with different properties in
AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING | SEPTEMBER 2011 35
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