Aircraft Propeller Service, LLC (APS) in Lake Zurich, Illinois, one of the world’s leading commercial propeller maintenance repair organizations, recently expanded its helicopter servo actuator capabilities following another license award by UTC Aerospace Systems for Airbus helicopters within Brazil.
As a result, the company will now be servicing Level III repairs in country for Squirrel/Fennec (EC130/AS350/355/AS550) and Dauphin/Panther (AS565/AS365) helicopter actuators, the only company in Brazil authorized at the noted level.
According to APS chief revenue officer Dennis Santare, “We will be providing our MRO servo actuator capabilities for the Squirrel and Dauphin helicopters on behalf of multiple operators, OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and FBOs [fixed base operators] located in Brazil as a result of having been selected as the licensee for the OEM subsidiary, UTC Actuation Systems (Vernon, France).
“What makes this particular license award especially gratifying is the fact that APS was selected because of our successful performance on the [Leonardo] AW109 series helicopter actuators and our ongoing performance servicing the OEM’s propeller systems in Brazil, the rest of the Americas, and Asia. We take great care of their product across multiple technology groups, which is incredibly important given that our focus is on critical flight safety systems such as propellers and flight controls.”
APS is leveraging the existing infrastructure it has in place for the AW109 helicopter servo actuators, and will be modifying equipment to test and assure equal success on the Airbus helicopter actuators. Included among this equipment is a sophisticated test stand which performs functional, operational and troubleshooting tests on the main rotor and tail rotor actuators.
Its application ensures that OEM maintenance manual parameters are met and match what APS technicians are observing from each actuator under repair. Further quality assurance will be achieved through the robust training package APS technicians received at UTC Actuation Systems.
APS Brazil general manager Fabio Renato Rossi do Nascimento said that the company uses Labview, a leading-edge software tool developed by National Instruments to ensure the highest level of accuracy in all test protocols.
“As critical flight control components, servo actuators must be in peak condition so that they can be installed and operated safely,” he said. “That is the confidence factor OEMs and operators have in APS and the repairs we perform.”
“Going forward, we expect to continue growing our capabilities within the helicopter servo actuator market,” added Santare.
