Operational availability: research projects
For over 100 years, NRL has been a leading knowledge institute for applied research, committed to a better world of tomorrow. We work objectively and independently, for and with the national and international business community and government agencies.
On this page you will find a number of the research projects related to this programme.
Project Brightsky – Smart MRO
This project is aimed at developing new knowledge and skills for devising innovative inspection methods and repairs that are applicable to (components of) aircraft and aircraft engines and/or to make existing techniques in other sectors applicable to aircraft maintenance, or to considerably improve them. With this, account must be taken of the specific, stringent certification criteria imposed on aviation safety.
Goal 2022: research to pinpoint which image processing methods and techniques and which inspection procedures are necessary for the observation, classification and assessment of the reparability of defects. The project will also explore the certification methods and techniques needed for future certification. The result will be a concept of operations: which materials and process parameters lead to the best repair in terms of functional properties, lead time and costs (among others).
Partners: JetSupport, KLM E&M, HvA, TUD, S[&]T, TNO
BrightSky is subsidised by the R&D Mobility Fund of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO)).
Theme Maintenance Technologies
The goal of this project is to build knowledge and to demonstrate new techniques (inspection, simulation) and maintenance concepts. Research is also being conducted into new repair techniques such as Laser Shock Peening (LSP), Low Plasticity Burnishing (LPB), Cold Working, Cold Spray and Directed Energy Deposition (DED). The potential role of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in supporting maintenance activities is also being investigated, for instance for walking through inspection procedures or obtaining extra component data such as repair history. With this, we want to gain insight into potential cost effective and environmentally friendly inspection and repair techniques, and how the use of these techniques can contribute towards reducing the logistical footprint.
Partners: Ministry of Defence, NLDA, Technical Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences, overseas knowledge institutes.