Design and Development of Aircraft Propeller Maintenance Facility for General Aviation

Abstract

Since the first flight and introduction of propellers from marine to the sky, various maintenance techniques have been employed to maintain aircraft propellers. With the advancement in the operation and safety of flight, propellers have been manufactured in various materials, shapes and measurements. The design developed is based on the concept of a “single stop shop facility”. The propeller maintenance facility majorly focuses the general aviation in order to provide them a set up that primarily focuses on the maintenance of propellers in order to avoid malfunctions resulting in accidents and failures. The maintenance procedures for workbench include static balancing, blade tracking, cleaning, visual inspection, corrosion removal and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). The developed facility has an accelerated scalability with the provision of facilitating Non-Destructive Testing that is performed on the workbench. The non-destructive testing results in assuring reliability and safety of the propellers as per the modern maintenance practices. The workbench developed focuses over the environment sustainability as it functions on the concept of sustainable maintenance that involves reduced unnecessary maintenance. Moreover, the currently developed facility integrates a proactive approach involving reduced use of energy in order to produce less waste and environmental impact. At present, the workbench has been manufactured and is being tested for propeller maintenance procedures.