R&D case: Digital crack and corrosion logbook

Digital crack and corrosion logbook. Reliability Centred Maintenance processes such as MSG-3 aim to decrease the maintenance burden, mitigate operating risks and deliver sustainable equipment reliability and readiness. For this, high fidelity inspection and maintenance records need to be available.

The challenge

The data entry portal of the current generation of maintenance data systems is cumbersome and non-intuitive. Most of the data has to be entered manually and the likelihood of entering inconsistent and/or incomplete data is high. The quality of the recorded inspection and maintenance records therefore is often less than satisfactory. This negatively affects the ability to conduct useful reliability analyses.

The solution

To improve the consistency and completeness of structural inspection findings, and to reduce the administrative burden on maintenance personnel, Royal NLR developed an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, the digital Crack & Corrosion Logbook (d-CCL) that takes away the data entry burden for the maintenance engineers.

Screenshot digital Crack & Corrosion Logbook (d-CCL)

What did we do?

The d-CCL is an app that runs on a tablet computer and features an intuitive 3D web interface. The inspection findings can be entered either graphically, through a 3D model of the aircraft at hand, or by means of pull-down menus. The app connects to a server as soon as an internet connection is available, upon which data synchronization is performed with the ERP system of the aircraft operator.

Historical data and data from other aircraft in the fleet are thus readily available to the maintainers. This enhances their situational awareness and increases the probability of detecting structural anomalies.The app is complemented with centralised software for performing fleetwide reliability analyses.

NLR Marknesse

Information

Latest cases

24 June 2025

R&D case: Breakthrough fuel cell technologies for aircraft

Project: BRAVA (Breakthrough Fuel Cell Technologies for Aviation) In the BRAVA project, technologies for a fuel cell-based power generation system (PGS) for aircraft are being developed. Since fuel cells generate a substantial amount of waste heat, a cooling system is required to remove this heat, which in turn accounts for a significant portion of the […]
Construction and Manufacturing

06 June 2025

R&D case: Laser ultrasonic inspection of complex-shaped composites

The manufacturing of complex-shaped composites is becoming increasingly common, driving up demand for fast automated quality control. Laser ultrasonic testing can be a viable technique to achieve this, as it is fast and contactless. However, it requires the inspected part to be perpendicular to the laser beam, posing a challenge for the positioning of the […]
Construction and Manufacturing

28 May 2025

R&D case: Fast non-destructive testing of large composite aircraft structures

Project: PENELOPE (Closed-loop digital pipeline for a flexible and modular manufacturing of large components) Automation of non-destructive and in-line inspection of aircraft composite parts contributes to efficient high-volume aircraft production, such as expected for the next-generation short-medium range (SMR) aircraft with entry-into-service in 2035. However, automation can also be cost-effective for smaller production volumes, as […]