Effective immediately Hartzell Engine Technologies will only sell turbocharger overhaul kits that will include 100-percent of the mandatory replacement parts needed to complete a field overhaul of an AeroForce turbocharger.
Montgomery, AL (January 20, 2020) — Hartzell Engine Technologies (HET) announced today that effective immediately, the company will make available to MROs complete kits that include all of the mandatory replacement parts to complete a field overhaul of an AeroForce turbocharger. The company will no longer sell individual piece parts for field overhauls.
“Based on analysis and inspections as a result of recent field incidents involving turbocharger overhauls that did not meet HET’s Overhaul Manual requirements for replacement of critical parts, we have decided to sell only complete kits,” stated HET President Keith Bagley. “Our goal is to support safety for our customers and we think the best way to do that is by ensuring that they receive all mandatory replacement hardware for the overhaul of AeroForce turbocharger products.”
Bagley explained that the foundation of HET’s turbocharger maintenance and overhaul instructions come from decades of experience and engineering data from the Garrett turbocharger lineage.
“As it is clearly stated in our instructions, when a turbocharger is being rebuilt, the shop may inspect all the original ‘reusable’ parts, and if they are within the permitted tolerances, use them in the rebuild,” he said. “But, for all critical parts, such as the highly stressed turbine wheel assemblies, bolts, lock plates and nuts, piston rings, thrust bearings, seal rings, retaining nuts, they must be replaced 100-percent of the time.”
“Maintenance professionals need to fully understand that some parts may seem in perfectly good condition, but due to the significant stresses placed on them during operations, they must be replaced no matter how they look during an inspection,” Bagley said. “For example, the turbine wheel is under significant centrifugal loads and temperatures. This can lead to high-temperature creep, which is a time-dependent deformation at elevated temperatures and stresses.”
“Hartzell Engine Technologies has thorough testing and analysis supporting the replacement requirement and demonstrating the potentially catastrophic consequences if critical parts are not replaced at overhaul,” he said.
“By selling complete overhaul kits, we are doing what we can to eliminate any instances where these critical parts are not replaced,” Bagley said. “Ensuring that our AeroForce turbochargers deliver the highest degree of safety, reliability, and performance is our number one priority.”