24 February 2025
NLRs structural integrity capability helps organisations optimise the operation of their (military) aircraft. We support the optimisation of usage and maintenance, aiming to maximise operational readiness while minimising costs and maintaining safety standards. Our expertise can also help extend component life and reduce maintenance costs.
18 December 2024
Maintenance is important to make aircraft operations a success. Unfortunately, the MRO industry is faced with a shortage of labour and pollution. How can we use innovations to help the industry?
18 December 2024
Global aviation is increasing, but the current lack of qualified maintenance personnel is becoming very problematic.It may eventually lead to a reduced availability of the fleets and, thus, reduced revenues for their operators. Part of the solution is to increase the efficiency of the existing maintenance processes by introducing innovative tooling.
20 July 2023
ICAF Conference: fatigue and the integrity of structural materials. To make flying as efficient and sustainable as possible, the aviation sector is always on the lookout for ways of making aircraft as light as possible. Fatigue – the point at which a material gives way under a low but varying load – plays an important role in this. The service life of an aircraft is largely determined by the risk of failure due to fatigue. Now that advanced lightweight materials and structures are gaining ground, the topic has become more urgent than ever.
05 April 2023
Fatigue of metals can cause premature failure of components and structures that are subject to cyclic loading. To avoid that risk, designers still employ a theory from the 1960s. Royal NLR has now come up with a new equation for calculating the growth rate of cracks under cyclic loading better. The proof of this has recently been published in the journal Engineering Fracture Mechanics.
23 February 2023
Offshore wind energy plays a major role in the transition to green energy. The wind turbine blades require periodic inspection. The inspection and repairs are carried out by specialists who descend along the blade on a cable. This is very labour-intensive and an even greater challenge offshore. The AIRTuB consortium developed systems that are mounted on a drone and that can automatically inspect the wind turbine blade and carry out repairs if necessary. Regular inspection allows repairs to be planned in a windless period which prevents loss of production.
23 September 2022
Development of maintenance training as a result of changed regulations
