Quality Department Discovers Reason for Aerospace Engine Threading Failure

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More goes on than measuring in PTI’s quality department. Assuring quality results is a dynamic process that isn’t limited to meeting the customer’s definition of quality. It’s going above and beyond the scope of quality department work to satisfy every customer requirement.

Sometimes this involves satisfying a requirement for a problem that a customer doesn’t know exists. For Dawn Stokes, Quality Assurance Manager, making sure everyone is following the rules is her primary focus. But when every rule is adhered to and something comes back flagged as a problem, it’s time to dig deeper.

PTI experienced a problem solving challenge with a major aerospace company’s parts that came in for dry film lubrication. “That’s how we discovered it. They thought it was a dry film issue because after our process, it wasn’t working,” Stokes said.

Dry Film Lubrication (DFL), also known as solid film lubrication, is the ideal solution for lubricating your parts when liquid-based lubricants fail to function properly. The dry film protective coating is more reliable for reducing surface friction between part surfaces.

The DFL department treated the engine parts with a protective coating and sent them on to quality. They passed inspection and were returned to the customer who promptly discovered a threading issue. During assembly, the parts, involving several engine orders, weren’t torqueing together correctly. The problem was believed to be in the dry film application and presented again to quality for inspection.

The quality department got help troubleshooting the problem parts from their “threading expert” who has background knowledge with threaded parts. Why weren’t the parts working properly under the specific threading dimensions they needed to adhere to? The problem wasn’t the dry film process, the expert determined, but the threading dimensions as defined in the blueprint.

“Looking closer at the prints, it just jumped out at him with all his thread knowledge,” Stokes said. “So he did the math to adjust the pitch in the threading,” and many conference calls with the customer later, the problem was resolved.

After careful review of the problem internally, the customer found that there was more than one engine group that had this same threading issue, and they ended up changing the requirements on their prints. They were able to apply this same engineering solution to another engine within the same part family.

Fixing problems in the quality department involves understanding the customer’s real needs and applying problem-solving skills that deliver true resolution and not just temporary fixes. Whatever special processes need you have, we have the expert to give you quality that goes beyond your requirements.

Parts from Palm-Sized To XXL

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Most of you might already know that when you deliver your part to PTI, all your special process needs are taken care of in-house and in one stop. But did you also know that we’re set up to meet the unique requirements of each customer based on widely varying part sizes?

Imagine a kiddie wading pool or a coffin-sized crate. That’s how large some of the parts are that arrive in our shipping department. Now think of holding a paper clip in the palm of your hand. Parts smaller than this come in for multiple special processes, with a multitude of sizes in between.

Handling these myriad of part sizes is a challenge PTI is equipped for. Each department has the capabilities of treating and testing a vast range of different sized parts with differing characteristics. Part dimensions, material properties, design complexity, part application, and fabrication processes of the part are all variables that must be considered when determining the best process methods.

There are special process houses out there that specialize in multiple processes, but they are restricted by part size. There are also shops that can manage larger-sized parts, but they’re limited to one or two processes at most. PTI has nine different process solutions and works on a broad spectrum of part sizes, with a specialization in larger sizes that other shops can’t handle.

Processing of one such large-sized part includes the following sequence…

  1. Using a fork truck, the titanium part is moved to the NDT department and an initial inspection is performed
  2. It undergoes a fluorescent penetrant inspection to check for any flaws
  3. It then gets sent to shot peen where it is housed in a massive shot peen machine designed to accommodate its size
  4. This is followed by a stop at quality control before it receives precision cleaning and a final cleanliness testing
  5. It’s shipped back to the customer sealed in a clean room bag and housed in its oversized carton

Parts arrive at PTI in all shapes and sizes, and each part that you send us receives exclusive process treatment. Whether your part is steel, magnesium, aluminum, or titanium, we have the right solution for the material and size of your part.