Tinker can, our allies know it

  • Published
  • By Capt. Jamey Hartsel
  • 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group
During a mission over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Feedom, an aircraft encountered an engine problem. A subsequent investigation determined the cause of the problem to be a faulty oil supply tube on the turbine frame of the engine.
   This defect was declared to be a safety of flight issue, prompting immediate depot attention.
   Engineers from the 448th Combat Sustainment Wing, along with technicians from industry partner General Electric, quickly developed a repair process for both the GE F110 and F118 engines.
   The 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group soon completed a prototype repair to test the design and establish a formal repair production process.
   However, according to Jack McSwain, welding shop supervisor, 548th Propulsion maintenance Squadron, this repair was not without challenges.
   "The repair involved multiple braze joints some of which required the technician to weld without seeing the joint," Mr. McSwain said. "To further complicate matters, the workspace of this repair is roughly smaller than a shoebox."
   X-rays were used to ensure the integrity and consistency of the welds.
   "After each joint is welded," said Matt Beauford, welding technician, 548th PMXS. "An X-ray is taken to make sure the weld was done properly before moving to the next joint. If just one of the welds is bad, we have to start the whole process over from the beginning."
   In the early stages of production in February 2006, the repair process was taking more than 100 days and the success rate of the repair was only 36.4 percent. 
   "After honing the manufacturing process using value stream mapping, processing numerous technical order deviations, and controlling each step in the process to ensure quality," said Roger Chapa, 548th PMXS, "the success rate of the repair improved to 70.3 percent by the end of March 2006."
   Today, five Tinker technicians are trained to perform the task and the repair's success rate is lingering around 95 percent. In addition, the flow days have been decreased to 82 days with some repairs being completed in less than 45 days.
   The outstanding success rate of the process has drawn the attention and interest of our allies.
   Members of the Turkish air force visited Tinker the week of July 10 to observe and learn the repair for themselves. They plan to return to Turkey and duplicate the 548th's successes.
   "This is a great opportunity for allies to cooperate on technological improvements that increase logistics supportability of crucial systems," said Lt. Col. Tolga Yildiz, Turkish air force liaison officer to Tinker.
   Core depot capability is essential to the successful sustainment of our weapon systems.
   "It's repair capabilities like these that identify the unique attributes that our depot brings to the fight," said Edward Arnold, Squadron director, 548th PMXS. "We have the professionals and equipment to revive expiring designs and solve our warfighters' problems."