New Delta TechOps engine shop counts on HYDRO tools for Rolls-Royce engine maintenance
In late 2015, Delta Airlines and Rolls-Royce signed a formal agreement for Delta TechOps (DTO) to become an Authorized Maintenance Center for Rolls-Royce engines. The new shop enables Delta to perform maintenance on engines with the most sophisticated and advanced technologies — in particular, the next-generation powerplants featured on Airbus A350s and forthcoming A330-900neo aircraft. The agreement allows Delta to provide engine services for the latest generation Trent XWB, Trent 1000 and Trent 7000.
Engine Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul for 150 aviation customers
Delta created this new engine shop by converting several large hangars at the airline's DTO Facility in Atlanta. After only three years of transformation, what was initially an aircraft base maintenance facility is now a totally refurbished engine disassembly and reassembly facility.
The new capability also stands to benefit the airline's Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul or MRO business, as Delta will work on engines from other airlines and aircraft operators. Delta TechOps serves more than 150 aviation and airline customers from around the world through its MRO business, specializing in high-skill work such as engines, components, avionics, airframe and line maintenance.
Equipping a whole MRO engine shop with tool packages in a short time frame
In 2016 HYDRO initiated first contact with Delta TechOps Project Management to become a primary supplier of Rolls-Royce Engine Tooling for their engine shop project in Atlanta. Shortly thereafter, the first engine tooling orders had been placed by Delta TechOps.
The deeply rooted quality culture of HYDRO is based on a partner mentality: put simply, the work performed by HYDRO’s highly committed sales and technical support teams is characterized by longtime customer relationships. This is why HYDRO became a primary tooling partner for Rolls-Royce some years ago to work on the initial T1000 tooling requirements.
The Delta TechOps shop was to be launched to support Delta’s A350 and XWB Fleet. But that all changed when Rolls-Royce asked Delta TechOps to change gears and ramp up as fast as possible to address the tear-downs with the T1000 issues.
HYDRO tools bringing the Rolls-Royce T1000 back into service
To meet that high demand in a short time frame, HYDRO delivered almost 800 engine tools to help Delta TechOps bring the T1000 engines back into service quickly. With its worldwide supply chain, HYDRO manufactures and supplies a complete range of engine tools for all applications and tasks. More than 12,000 engine tools with 2,900 bespoke tools were delivered in 2018. HYDRO is the selected partner of all engine MROs worldwide for initial engine shop setups. Within the engine tool package for Delta TechOps HYDRO achieved a quality ratio of over 99%.
Further growth for Delta TechOps engine MRO business
Since the beginning of the project, the Delta TechOps hangar has developed dramatically, including the creation of 130,000 square feet of space with epoxy flooring, enough to cover 2.5 football fields. The facilities required 1,020 tons of structural steel, the equivalent of 11 Boeing 737s. The hospital shop bays are well defined to help support Rolls-Royce with its compressor and turbine module work. The shop currently employs approximately 70 mechanics, but this will ramp up dramatically to meet the forecast goal of turning 80 T1000 engines in 2019.
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