Technology
MRO: Augmented Reality
AR AND VR TECHNOLOGIES
ARE ALL SET TO FLUIDIZE THE
MRO ECOSYSTEM
By Avimanyu Basu
A
ugmented Reality and Virtual
Reality (AR/VR) technologies
have already entered the
commercial aviation market and can
be expected to be the most effectual
in the maintenance, repair and
overhaul (MRO) areas. With the global
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic
and necessities of social distancing,
the maintenance of functional areas
require cutting-edge technologies
to train maintenance engineers and
technicians and support them with
appropriate guidance in case of a
real-time maintenance exercise such
as a type-A MRO (the regular checks
executed before and after every flight).
Technologies supporting telepresence
with real-time connectivity between
onsite operators and technical experts
located elsewhere can be an example.
These solutions usually involve
equipping maintenance staff with
wearable AR systems and engage a VR
solution for immersive conversations.
Virtual image marking, with the help
of smart glasses or a mobile device,
can provide effectual guidance, without
affecting the user’s spatial awareness.
TRENDS
The MRO market is poised to realize
a significant reduction in requests
from engineering support technicians
through seamless sharing of digital
images as well as other data via handheld
devices as compared to the traditional
paper-based request forms. AR/VR
powers quick resolution for engineering
glitches that can be arrested digitally and
referred to in case of a similar situation
in the future. Accordingly, some of the
trends in the industry are the following:
Aligning With The Drift
From Predictive To Proactive
Maintenance
The original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) have started adopting an
analytics-based maintenance approach
for the equipment supplied to the
operators which is gradually shifting from
predictive to proactive maintenance.
Advances in AR/VR technologies such
as Microsoft’s HoloLens, HTC Vive,
as well as software to enable endusers unlock the full potential of these
products, are empowering these data-
India’s Premier Aviation Magazine
20
July-August 2020
driven maintenance ambitions of the
OEMs. As a result, the manufacturers
are often attaching a set of tools to
reinforce training and maintenance
of their products such as airframe and
engine. Rolls-Royce’s VR tool to support
refresher training on the Trent XWB
engine, launched with Qatar Airways
can be cited as an example.
Evolving partnership ecosystems
accelerating technology maturity
The commercial aviation industry has
been witnessing numerous instances
of partnerships in these areas. While
some of the technology developers
have been working towards delivering
a more immersive customer experience
and planning to position its offering
as standalone solutions in the market,
few other AR/VR specialists are being
approached by aviation industry
stakeholders to come up with a solution,
customised for the aerospace industry.
For instance, IFS has collaborated with
AR specialist XMReality to work on an
AR-driven remote guidance solution
helping repair engineers to connect
with colleagues at the base.
Transforming intellectual
memory to muscle memory with
Mixed Reality (MR)
MR-powered
training
programs
promise immense possibilities with
reducing cost and duration of cycles.
Global airframers such as Airbus have
been signing up for Microsoft Mixed
Reality Partner Program, which have
been creating Microsoft HoloLens
apps to train engineers and cabin
crews. Japan Airlines (JAL) along with
maintenance engineering counterpart,
JAL Engineering has been actively
involved in such programs to sharpen
its Airbus customer support capabilities
for its A350 XWB jetliners. Also, United
Technologies Research Center and Pratt
& Whitney’s customer training division
have engaged AR headsets and hand
sensor controls to empower technicians
to virtually walk inside engines to
inspect components and view a running
engine in motion to get a more real-time
aspect of component functionalities.
The way forward
With the airports opening up after
the pandemic and the skyrocketing
demand of new aircraft, several aircraft
refurbishment companies are looking
at getting old aircraft back in the skies
with a nose-to-tail refurbishment
including new engines, avionics etc.
The components are made to undergo
a series of thorough testing, which
can be made more effective with NDT,
reinforced by AR and thus, reducing the
time to commercial business and overall
cost of refurbishment. Furthermore,
the engineers would require access to
a resilient digital repository to expedite
the refurbishing which can formulate
with blockchain.
Moving away from the traditional
test to destruct
From training and MROs, AR/VR can
be expected to be more intrinsically
interweaved within the aviation value
chain. Various testing procedures
during product development such as
testing the effects of high thermal and
aerodynamic stress on the nacelles,
which has historically been destructive,
slow and thus, cost-intensive can use
AR to conduct non-destructive testing.
Use of VR in maintenance procedure (Airbus)
Consistently, Safran modelled a similar
non-destructive testing process for
composite panels of aircraft nacelles. The
company leveraged the IRIS (InfraRed
Inspection System) solution which
uses thermography to scan different
parts of the nacelle and collate data for
further analysis. With the help of AR, the
analysed data can be used to check the
corresponding component of the nacelle.
Convergence with Blockchain
The emerging technologies employing
MR with parts acquisition during
MRO operations can be combined
with
blockchain
technology
to
reinforce the aftermarket value chain.
Companies like Ramco Systems have
already demonstrated the usability
of blockchain ledgers which can be
accessed by the maintenance engineer,
the logistics and loan officers, and any
other relevant stakeholders to procure
Technologies
supporting
telepresence
with real-time
connectivity between
onsite operators and
technical experts
located elsewhere
can be an example.
India’s Premier Aviation Magazine
21
July-August 2020
necessary parts. A MR cloak on these
technologies will make the supply chain
more fluidic and reduce the aircraft
ground time.
While AR/VR promises significant
potential in the global MRO market,
the price of the devices is still quite
high to support a deployment at scale.
Thus, the technology may be expected
to take off with mobile applications
instead of more immersive glasses or
headset kits, despite the challenges of
restricted “hands-free” fit outs for the
technicians. Furthermore, the role of
AR in NDT for aircraft refurbishment
should be coupled with requirements to
meet stringent structural engineering
standards to validate the required
airworthiness of the tested products.
Overall, AR/VR in MRO sub-vertical is
directed to addressing the challenge of
shortage of skill. The technologies are
being leveraged to replicate the skills of
the qualified engineers and ramping up
their effectiveness at the point of use.
In the near future, a lot of convergence
can be expected from technologies
from different verticals to address the
requirements of the aviation industry
through AR/VR.
However, these technologies should
be appropriately standardized as per
the configurations of the ‘aircraft of the
future’ with more-electric architecture
to realize the maximum benefit out of
AW
it. The writer is an analyst and consultant.
His verticals of interest are aerospace
and defence, automotive and energy. The
views presented in this article are his
personal.
Grid Stabilization
Pandemic Shockwaves
no exception. While the pandemic
aftershocks have led to external factors
that typically impact the automotive value
chain as well as the global energy economy
as a whole, such as sharp decline in crude
prices, it has also created new opportunities
in the technology layer. The pandemic era
can be looked upon as an opportunity for
the stakeholders to resurrect the energy and
associated verticals, unlocking new business
models and identifying innovation sweet spots. The
electric power economy, overarching application
lectric Vehicle (EV) and Hybrid Electric
areas such as smart grids and its components such
Vehicle (HEV) configurations have
as the charging infrastructure and grid storage, is all
been historically proposed as a more
set to adopt to these paradigm change.
sustainable alternative to the conventional fossilSome of the major trends of the grid connected EV
fuel powered internal combustion (IC) engines
landscape and the associated technologies are as follows:
for the global automotive and transportation
Fluidizing the power exchange: Deploying EVs at
industries. The COVID-19 pandemic has
scale would have a cascading effect on the energy grid, one
resulted in tectonic shifts in such foundational
of them being the increase in grid load during the charging
concepts and compelled several industries to
operation i.e., transfer of energy from the grid to the vehicle
adopt a philosophical bend of mind to accept
(G2V) to charge the battery. To fortify the grid stability, the
the new norm, the automotive industry being
to create major pitfalls
for grid stability concomitant to
www.electricalindia.in
EV CHARGING
36
E
Electrical India | September 2020
Image by Andreas160578 from Pixabay
EV ecosystem players are reinforcing
the EV with vehicle to grid (V2G)
technologies. V2G depicts the set of
technologies used for the management
and control of electric vehicle loads
through the local electrical utility.
The V2G nomenclature represents
a robust two-way communication
channel with the smart grid as well
as the vehicles and initiates the
transfer of unused or excess power
back to the grid. The components
included usually consists of vehicle to
grid chargers, grid aggregators, power
loads, power transmission systems
and communication systems. The
typical advantages of V2G revolve
around harmonic filtering, resulting
in improved quality of power and
efficient failure recovery from an
outage. The active power support
manifests load-leveling services along
with peak load shaving. Also, control of
the grid voltage becomes more precise
with control switching and appropriate
sizing of the DC link charger capacitor.
The EV owners are economically
benefited with respect to the amount
of energy transferred back to the grid.
Enhancing grid stability with
bidirectional power flow: The
smart grid leverages an integrated
communication system to manage and
control power flow associated with the
EV battery. In a conventional system,
this flow is often unidirectional which
consists of a basic control system for
controlling the charging rate. The
concept is, however, effective enough
to provide power grid support with
spinning reserves and grid control.
This energy exchange can be made
more fluidic with a flexible policy
between electrical utility and EV
users. In order to unleash the true
potential of the power flow with
several grid support activities such
as reactive power support, peak load
shaving, frequency regulation and
voltage regulation, bidirectional flow
can be activated i.e., V2G and G2V.
A bidirectional EV battery charger
consists of DC/DC converter and AC/
DC converter (rectifier). During EV
charging, the rectifier converts the
AC power from the grid to DC power,
which is again converted back to AC
with an inverter while discharging,
sending the power back to the grid.
The DC/DC converter, on the other
hand, acts as a flyback or a buck-boost
converter that uses current control
methods to regulate the bidirectional
flow i.e., a boost converter and a
buck converter during discharging and
charging respectively.
Dedicated grid stabilization
initiatives: The rapid growth in
the numbers of electric vehicles
on Britain’s roads will mean
more demand on local electricity
networks, if EVs are all plugged in
at the same time, such as during
the peak between 5pm and 7pm in
the evening. Recently, UK’s Western
Power Distribution (WPD), in
collaboration with CrowdCharge has
triggered a new V2G trial across parts
of the UK, as a part of the next phase
of the Electric Nation program. The
program is directed towards enabling
EVs to stabilize the grid, powering
domestic houses.
Technological
advancements
come with its share of challenges
and bidirectional power flow is
no exception. The technological
development and its market attributes
have several nuances, some of which
should be strategically upholstered to
drive commercialization
So What?
Stabilizing the grid has been a major
challenge for utilities as well as
technology developers for decades
and a long-term solution would not
be viable without active involvement
in the initiatives by the EV users. The
policies should be incentivized, such
as it is rewarding for the EV owners to
not to charge their vehicles during peak
time resulting in the prevention of the
peak hour overloading. Developing
and commercializing the ideal energy
storage technology has been one
of the major challenges plaguing
the energy industry. Continuous
charging and discharging associated
with bidirectional flow would lead
to quicker degradation of the EV
battery due to the irreversible internal
chemical reactions. To support such
operations, the ideal balance between
energy density, specific energy, and
cost should be found, else the battery
stands vulnerable to the deterioration
Electrical India | September 2020
37
www.electricalindia.in
Grid Stabilization
38
of the battery’s usable power and
increase its internal resistance.
Battling the cost resistance:
While the utilities have been
drumming up government support
to sanction the capital-intensive
up-gradation of the existing power
system with respect to the software
and hardware infrastructure of smart
grids, the impact will trickle down to
the EV users as well. To fulfill the V2G
requirements, the EV participant
would require a sophisticated (and
hence, cost-intensive) bidirectional
battery charger. Furthermore, the
charging and discharging would
increase chances of energy losses
over smart grids.
Absence of targeted promotion
campaigns: The understanding of
the criticality of grid stability is often
myopic on the end-user side. Thus,
without a short-term, tangible benefit, it
would be challenging for the utilities to
convince EV users to participate in V2G
schemes. Furthermore, the automotive
industry, which was profusely bleeding
cash since the pre-COVID times, has
been compelled to edict the normalized
EV pricing propositions into obscurity.
With high prices and lower subsidies,
the potential EV owners are often
discouraged to rule out the counterpart
IC engine powered options. There is,
thus, need for interlocution between
the government, the automotive OEMs
and utilities to segment the pricing
propositions for various cross-section
of EV buyers and subscribers such as
schemes for buyers with smart homes,
buyers with installed solar panels at
home, buyer with limited accessibility
to the grid and so on. A well-defined
scheme highlighting realizable value
can overturn a user towards opting
for an EV or participating in energy
sharing propositions.
Hydrogen economy can be
a looming threat: Despite the
technology development slowdown,
the much-awaited hydrogen economy
is a promising alternative to gridconnected EV, HEV and other options
of sustainable mobility. The hydrogenpowered
propulsion
indirectly
challenges the market of V2Gand G2V
technologies. The development and
commercialization of fuel cell powered
vehicles in certain regions (the US
and few countries in Europe) is one
of the major drivers for the adoption
of hydrogen as an environmentfriendly, emission-free fuel. The fuel
cell can be fed on any hydrocarbon
compound, which is disintegrated
into carbon and hydrogen within the
cell. The hydrogen is used to produce
electricity and water is generated as
end-product. With the addressal of
shortcomings related to efficient way
of hydrogen storage and upscaled
production, this technology can
completely neutralize the demand
for the grid energy exchange
infrastructure associated with the EV.
In spite of the challenges, it
may be expected that too futuristic
technology alternatives would be
discarded in these inadvertent
times. R&D budgets of OEMs are
likely to be slashed, discouraging
such enterprises to be pushed below
the substitutional technologies at
this juncture.
Key Takeaway
Even with undisputable advantages
of reactive and active power support,
renewable energy support, grid
overloading prevention, failure
recovery, and power factor regulation,
bidirectional power flow remains
a convoluted impasse. The
COVID
era
exposes
the
environmental
Electrical India | September 2020
hardliners and electric mobility
evangelists to an even more belligerent
situation as compared to the fossil-fuel
driven value chain participants. With
plummeting crude prices, surfacing
of hybrid configurations of CNG and
LPG with petrol from auto majors to
minimize operating cost, the thriving
EV market is suffering a pernicious
setback. The complementing market of
zero-power homes (which can produce
its own electricity consumption
through rainwater harvesting and
solar panels), which were expected
to be one of the biggest contributors
to V2G options, are withdrawing to an
inadvertent plan of sustenance. This
is due to increased solar panel prices
because of the import restrictions of
Chinese products and rippling effect
on the overall operational value chain,
driving the total ownership cost higher.
Overall, it would be challenging
to convert potential EV buyers to
actual buyers without a discrete,
short-term monetary benefit or by
imposing draconian penalties for
carbon emissions. Absence of a
structured blueprint of either would
make the wide scale adoption of
bidirectional power flow technologies
and the associated stability of the
smart grid a distant and overtly
ambitious aspiration.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in
the article belong solely to the author,
and not necessarily to the author’s
employer, organization, committee
or any other group or individual.
Avimanyu Basu
Lead Analyst with
Information Services
Group (ISG)
Transmission
Image by Zeljko Ivic from Pixabay
www.electricalindia.in
NZ’s invention
may be the next
power system
maverick
addressing long
distance
transmission
blips…
22
A NOVEL WIRELESS
TECHNOLOGY
A
chieving cost-effectiveness in
power transmission has been
a major challenge to the global
energy and utilities industry. In
several regions where the generation
cost could be minimized with
induction of renewable resources,
the levelized cost of energy (LCOE)
increases due to the high cost of
transmission. To address this, New
Zealand based Emrod has developed
a technology, which can deliver long-
Electrical India | November 2020
range, high-power, wireless power
transmission (WPT) which can
potentially replace the existing copper
line infrastructure for transmission
and distribution. The technology, if
commercialized, can be lucrative for
utilities across a number of regions
globally, such as China and several
countries in Europe, which have
identified the right mix of energy
generating resources to optimize the
LCOE offered to the end users.
Emrod’s march as an anti-copper firebrand: The
Emrod technology leverages electromagnetic waves to
safely and efficiently transmit energy wirelessly over
significant distances. The technology is presently in
the prototype stage, which would need to undergo
considerable modifications to be scaled up. However,
the prototype was successful in securing some public
funding in New Zealand. The Emrod team designed
and built the protype in Auckland in collaboration with
Callaghan Innovation, an innovation agency driven by the
New Zealand government. Emrod has been working with
Powerco, New Zealand’s second-largest power distributor,
which has expressed interest in deploying a proof of
concept of the technology. The exercise would be directed
towards finding the level of compatibility of the technology
with the existing distribution circuit operated by the utility.
Following stringent safety measures: Emrod
leveraged a non-ionizing Industrial, Scientific and Medical
frequency (ISM) band to execute the transmission in
order to maintain high safety standards to be used around
humans and animals. Furthermore, the technology has
been equipped with a “low power laser safety curtain”
which shuts down power transmission before any object,
such as a bird or a drone can touch the main beam. The
system also allows placing a meter anywhere to measure
the usage of electricity.
High cost can stonewall adoption: The technology,
once commercialized, would be appropriate for
transmitting energy to remote locations with limited
or no access to the grid. A full scale deployment would
involve a one-time but a significant cost of several
equipment including transmitting antennas, an array of
relays and a receiving rectennas (i.e. a rectifying antenna
which can convert microwave energy into electricity).
Thus, the existing distribution grid infrastructure would
remain unchanged. The transformers used in stepping
down the transmission voltage (usually 110 KV) for
directing it to the distribution grid would thus, be fed
with the electricity converted directly from microwaves.
A conventional rectenna can convert radio waves with
low frequencies i.e. high wavelength to electricity.
A sophisticated rectenna would thus, be required to
obtain the necessary frequency, implying fabrication
challenges. Also, the utility should have a series of
such rectennas spread across the transmission path
(typically, a couple of kilometers) which can bring down
the financial viability of the technology.
Key Takeaway: The technology would be useful in
case of unplanned outage events i.e., a truck equipped
with a rectenna, driven to a visual range of a relay
can establish a temporary wireless power connection.
However, there are few segments of end-users who
would not be influenced by the adoption of wireless
power transmission. The zero-power home (where the
house generates its own energy consumption and feeds
the excess to the grid for monetary benefit) owners,
for example, would require a very robust distribution
network and would hardly be impacted by any change
or disruption in the transmission lines. Also, end-users
such as hospitals or military bases, which require high
reliability in power supply are expected to continue with
the traditional supplies, reinforced by appropriate energy
storage systems as back-ups. The technology may replace
small captive power plants for residential units in the
years to come. Also, the technology promises potential
for electric vehicle applications such as charging spots
on highways.
Overall, the understanding of long-distance power
transmission could be myopic. While the technology
can obliterate the copper-based transmission, there are
also associated costs to get the new technology aligned
and integrated with the generation and distribution
infrastructure. These ecosystems are quite hardwired
into the overall power economy and thus, difficult to
remove or replace. Thus, identifying key use cases
would the key to profitability for any utility adopting
this technology.
References:
• New Atlas: New Zealand’s wireless power transmission:
Your questions answered by Loz Blain, accessed
31 Oct 2020, accessible at https://newatlas.com/
energy/long-range-wireless-power-transmission-newzealand-emrod/
• Medium: The dream of Wireless power transmission
might soon become a reality, by Faisal Khan, accessed
31 Oct 2020, accessible at https://medium.com/
technicity/the-dream-of-wireless-power-transmissionmight-soon-become-a-reality-9b57f4bf7c57.
Avimanyu Basu
Lead Analyst with
Information Services
Group (ISG)
Electrical India | November 2020
23
Aircraft lighting
Palliative
aircraft
interior
illumination
Photo credit: unsplash.com by Marvin Meyer
Interior lighting
in an aircraft is an
integral part of the ambience
and passengers’ comfort. New
technologies are coming up to
address this area. The aircraft
designers, manufacturers and
maintenance groups should
adopt the latest offerings in
the industry.
14  LIGHTING INDIA 
May - June 2020
A
ircraft lighting has been a crucial factor of the overall
passenger experience but often overlooked as the
other interior components such as seating, inflight
entertainment, or connectivity, take precedence. With
the age of more-electric aircraft steadily moving towards allelectric configurations, lighting components suppliers have
been innovating towards maintaining the delicate balance of
product cost-effectiveness, aesthetics, and energy economy.
Cabin illumination contributes significantly to the comfort of
the passengers onboard, particularly on long-haul,
transcontinental flights. Consistently, the technology
developers conduct regular tests on the impact of light on
human beings, the result of which feeds into the product
design engineering nomenclature.
The aircraft lighting market has been fragmented and
various suppliers have identified innovation sweet spots to
excel as a technology developer. The following trends
reflect the seismic hotspots of technology innovations
and the associated market participants.
With the emergence of mood lighting i.e. color changing light
to provide a more immersive passenger experience by
aligning the illumination to certain conditions, carriers have
been utilizing this as an avenue of the brand proposition.
Innovative concepts such as fabricating artificial daylight from
sunset to sunrise, dinner atmosphere, a cloudy or star-studded
sky with cutting-edge simulation. This kind of interior lighting has
been evolving as a symbolic tower of the brand proposition that
screams the airline name with features such as designated color
combinations typically used by the operator.
Fluidizing design differentia to enhance
retrofit viabilities:
Germany-based Diehl Aerospace has gone a step further with
respect to mood lighting with its flex-illumination and flatsurface-illumination technology, under its Human-Centric
Lighting (HCL) portfolio, which fluidizes the design
possibilities. US-based Collins Aerospace has ramped up
the retrofit attribute with lighting systems, which can be
installed within the existing fluorescent fixture mounting
facades with specially designed Light-Emitting Diode (LED)
lighting lenses seamlessly integrating into the existing
sidewalls. The company’s Tapestry LED-based mood
lighting system fits into the traditional fluorescent cabin
lighting frames, replacing it with high Color Rendering
Index (CRI) color points which can be adjusted to maximize
crew and passenger comfort with respect to consistency
and intensity. Consistently, Germany-based Luminator
Aerospace has strategically diversified its product line to
enhance the retrofit characteristics. While it has introduced a
substitute for traditional fluorescent tubes with bi-colour and
tri colour alternatives that can be installed in the existing
aircraft structure, interior components, control interface
and system wiring; it has also launched its Full Mood
Lighting (RGBW) offering for more intense requirements. The
systems promise enhanced modularity with the option of
downloading the lighting tables as per the scene and color
configurations specified by the customer airline. Also, with
reduced size LED strip alternatives to fluorescent tubes, singleaisle jetliners as well as business jets can accommodate larger
overhead bins.
Aircraft lighting
‘Logotype’ mood lighting evolving as airline
brand statement:
Leveraging HCL to abate jet lag:
Germany-based Jetlite has directed its efforts to unlock the
visual, biological and emotional benefits of light that
ameliorate the passenger health, particularly in adapting
the biological cycles of passengers to the destination time
zone reducing the jet lag effects. Controlled consolatory
light for relaxation, cooler light as a stimulant for active
phases enable minimal deflection for the involuntary,
biorhythmic functions. In the heart of this stress-alleviating
technology lies the Jetlite controller, which, integrated with
the existing cabin management system, moderates the
cabin lighting automatically in line with HCL standards.
Apart from the passengers, the technology promises
diminution of the stress of flight attendants due to increasing
workloads across time zones and associated lack of rest,
effectually improving their performance.
Photo credit: unsplash.com by Note Thanun
May - June 2020

LIGHTING INDIA
 15
Aircraft Lighting
Avimanyu Basu
The author is a Lead Analyst with Information Services Group (ISG) and comes
with 10 years of experience in market research and consulting. He has executed
several strategy consulting assignments for both public and private sector clients
in APAC, Middle East and Europe in verticals like aerospace and defence,
automotive and energy. Presently, most of his engagements revolve around
outsourced engineering services.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and
not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or any other
group or individual.
Impregnating existing artifacts with luminous
elements for customized visuals:
Implementing microLED for weight and
longevity advantages:
UK’s AIM Altitude has integrated its lighting solutions in the
buyer-furnished equipment thus, creating more modular
propositions for interior illumination. While this concept of
moving away from separate lighting products to a more
modulated design of ‘illuminating’ the existing interior
artifacts addresses challenges associated with space restrains,
the innovation also avoids installation challenges due to
complex shapes. The innovation has witnessed an encouraging
response in the middle east, the Emirates-operated Boeing
777 Ghaf Tree feature panel being an example. These
features have been utilized by the airlines to intensate brand
awareness such as fortifying the 3D appearance of the Arabic
design with proper lighting, executed for Oman Air. AIM
Altitude has also implemented the feature of displaying
various scenes for different flight segments for Virgin Atlantic’s
Airbus A350 Social Zone, making the passengers pensively
aware of the local sights at the destination.
With LEDs being installed for cabin lighting requirements
for quite a few years now, the market stakeholders,
specifically technology developers have been working
towards bringing in more active and granular control with
LEDs, without convoluting the installed electrical circuit.
Enter microLED technologies - Collins Aerospace has been
the first aerospace company to venture into the application
of microLED technology to the cabin in the form of reading
light. The company has been exploring possibilities with
microLEDs and its installation in panelized lighting on flat
and curved surfaces, as well as with video capabilities
through embedded systems. Apart from better control,
microLEDs also provide improved longevity and lightweight
advantages.
Sharpening control with LED lighting:
Germany-based Schott, another optics specialist which has
been in the forefront of innovation with respect to lightings
and its effects on the passenger biorhythm, focuses on
replicating natural light and uses a spectrum of over 16
million colors as well as eliminating color effects’ of ageing of
LEDs. A unique combination of the optical light converter and
an LED sensor assimilates the output of every LED, effectually
removing possibilities of color drifts (light dots). The challenge
of ageing LEDs impacting the overall homogeneity of the light
performance was tackled by Schott with its HelioJet technology.
The technology leverages four LED colors (red, green, blue,
white) integrated into an optical light converter, which uses
fiber optic principles. The set-up is supported by sensor
management which controls the LEDs and provides a
homogeneous light output over the life of the LEDs. The
Heliojet has experienced a growing customer base over the
years, starting with Scandinavian SAS in partnership with
German MRO specialist Lufthansa Technik in 2015.
16  LIGHTING INDIA 
May - June 2020
Improving passenger health conditions:
Few companies, such as Luminator have been working towards
enhancing cabin health and safety with antibacterial lighting.
The lighting would neutralize harmful bacteria such as MRSA,
E. coli, and salmonella, as well as yeasts and fungi. The
differentiating factor is brought in by avoiding the use of UV
light that may deteriorate the plastic or interior components
through extended exposure. US-based start-up Vital Vio has
been one of the first movers in this market. After a successful
penetration of the hospitals, gyms, household and hotel
industries, the company has been working with Delta Air Lines
(through Delta’s innovation group, The Hangar) to implement
its antimicrobial LED lighting technology onboard airplanes.
Furthermore, the collaboration creates opportunities for Vital
Vio to extend the application of its technology to airports and
lounges.
Enabling feedback product development
workflows:
Stakeholders have established dedicated centers of excellence
(CoEs) and CX labs which replicates the aircraft cabin
environment, enabling the customers to readily experience the
So What?
Market participants have been keeping their nose to the
grindstone for bringing in the effective convergence of optics
research around human-centric lighting and the human
chronobiology (around such as melatonin and cortisol levels,
heart rate variability, motion data etc.). Companies like Jetlite
have developed proprietary algorithms, which expedites
productization of these research learnings. Impacts of jetlag on
the inner clock can be reduced by controlling the aircraft’s
cabin lighting to provide more relaxation and activationfocused environment, considering parameters such as routes,
directions and time zones. This contributes to the overall
passenger experience and has the potential to pull an airline
up the preference list of a frequent flier.
From an industrial standpoint, the COVID-19 pandemic
has triggered ripples of uncertainty across the layers of the
aviation ecosystem, initiating tectonic shifts in the entire value
chain. The new aircraft demand existing so far can be expected
to be sidestepped by the exponential growth of the refurbishment
market, demanding a change in the ingrained strategy of the
supplier network, including the lighting suppliers and technology
developers. The suppliers should thus, articulate a strategy for
the retrofit market, bifurcated from the conventional linefit
market, for driving the next generation lighting products
business. The growing market reflects significant opportunities
for design firms and presents a landscape of possibilities for
unleashing newer concepts like design thinking. The design
excellence, once infused with an appropriate cobweb of
in-house process and product best practices, would overcome
the roadblock of convergence between design and product
deployment, which has been historically encountered by most
product manufacturers across industries.
Overall, the airline industry has been traditionally driven by
passenger experience and expected to be more so, in the postCOVID era. With a range of restrictions in place while flying,
as well as during the time spent at the airport, the horizon of
passenger experience has increased a few fold and the airlines
should triangulate specific areas of focus and develop a
collaborative blueprint to address the requirements and gain
market share. n
Aircraft Lighting
cabin illumination. Diehl’s LVC (Light Verification Center), for
instance, conducts lighting tests with relevant optical instruments
(spectrometer, goniometer and sphere etc.). The test results,
along with the passenger experience data and the operator
requirements, feed into the new developments of cabin
illumination in a closed-loop development model. Similarly,
Collins Aerospace provides a fully simulated environment for the
airline customers to experiment with the system, such as
customize a cabin with their brand embossed on the seats and
other monuments while Collins’ consultative approach helps
define the appropriate color points for each phase of flight.
References:
•
•
•
•
Aviation Business News: Cabin lighting: Making light work of
passenger comfort by Bernie Baldwin, accessible at https://www.
aviationbusinessnews.com/cabin/cabin-lighting-passenger-comfort/,
accessed 30 June 2020
Runway Girl Network: Making the case for aircraft cabin lighting
harmonization by Mary Kirby, https://runwaygirlnetwork.
com/2019/06/15/making-the-case-for-aircraft-cabin-lightingharmonization/
Diehl Aviation: Cabin Lighting, accessible at https://www.diehl.com/
aviation/en/portfolio/cabin-lighting/, accessed 30 June 2020
Collins Aerospace: Lighting, accessible at https://www.
collinsaerospace.com/en/what-we-do/Business-Aviation/Cabin/
Lighting, accessed 1 July 2020
Photo credit: unsplash.com by Alev Takil
May - June 2020

LIGHTING INDIA
 17
Special Feature
Non-destructive testing can
aid aircraft refurbishing
market absorb global
pandemic shockwaves
By Avimanyu Basu
Background
Non-destructive testing (NDT) can be
represented as a set of aircraft inspection
methods which spans a wide range of
technologies, from analysis of 3D images
of cracks, corrosion, dents in metals and
composite materials to manual techniques
like liquid penetrant and magnetic particle
testing. With the adoption of composites
and 3D-printed components in aircraft
manufacturing, a requirement for testing
the endurance of complex nomenclatures
is being realized. NDT bridges this gap with
its capability to access components down to
the material levels. Some of the conventional
NDT technologies are the following:
Penetrant Testing (PT) and Magnetic
Particle Testing (MT): Some of the
conventional ways of detecting surfacebreaking defects in metal and other
nonporous materials are Penetrant testing
(PT) and magnetic particle testing (MT).
These NDT technologies have been used
for decades but, with their own set of
limitations in functionalities i.e. PT is capable
of detecting only surface cracks and involves
human intervention in handling chemicals,
while MT is applicable on ferromagnetic
materials alone. The other challenges for
both methods include surface preparation
and chemical disposal which are often timeconsuming even with a skilled inspector
without the provision of a detailed digital
record of the inspection results. In case of
a hazardous or hard to reach area, further
delay can be expected.
Ultrasonic Testing: In case of ultrasonic
testing, the instruments and probes initiate
high-frequency sound energy to detect
AVIATION UPDATE
defects such as porosities, delamination,
and foreign particles in composites and
anisotropics. The defects usually occur on the
surface or within a layer of fibre or resin, often
introduced during the materials fabrication.
With immediate and precise results, along
with a digital templatethat can share and
store data, ultrasonic testing addresses some
of the challenges encountered with PT or MT.
Eddy Current Testing: it is another swift,
precise, and chemical-free technique for
detecting surface and sub-surface defects
such as cracks, corrosion, and heat damage.
It is often used for inspecting airframe skins,
stringers, frames, rivet holes, tubing, and
other ferrous and non-ferrous components.
The
methodology
involves
inducing
changing electromagnetic field from a probe
or coil into a metal surface. Any cracks or
disruption in the metallurgical structure
will deviate the flow. These distortions are
analyzed and presented in a digital graphic
format to identify the glitch.
NDT
is
gradually
evolving
to
address the shortcomings of the above
technologies, thus, maturing into a more
airtight technology segment, reinforced by
dynamic market drivers. Some of the key
technologyare as follows:
Technology trends
Adoption of Neutron Imaging: One
of the emerging NDT technologies is
neutron imaging, which can detect deeply
embedded catch flaws and defects that
often goes unnoticed due to the complexity
in detection. The methodology leverages
neutron radiography which transmits a
stream of neutron radiation to inspect the
internal structure of a component. Neutron
imaging is appropriate for detecting cracks
and voids in energetic materials, ceramic
fragments in turbine blades, structural
weaknesses in composites and 3D-printed
components. With capability to interact
only with the nucleus and discarding the
electrons, neutron radiation is opaque to
lighter materials. This is mainly because
atomic nuclei have very high density and
it is difficult for the radiation to penetrate.
This level of insight in the sub-atomic
levels is often useful for materials study of
components such as turbine blades.
Rapid softwarization of ecosystem:
The role of software has become more
critical in NDT, sometimes in fortifying the
capabilities of instruments and sometimes in
providing a single-pane-of-glass mechanism
in holistically managing the overarching
process. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of
some eddy current instruments, for example,
restricts their abilities in identifying minute
flaws and loss of material that occurs due to
friction stir welds and multi-layer structures.
The embedded software in instruments
supporting single and dual-frequency eddy
current, rotating scanners, and conductivity
with viewing tools negates this limitation due
to SNR. Furthermore, Germany-based DÜRR
NDT’sproprietary web-based application
Drive NDT enables the unification of NDT
workflow, bringing test procedures on to a
single system. The system brings together
all procedures, from order entry, inspector
assignments, equipment, instructions, to test
juLY
2020
13
Special Feature
report generation, approval and archiving.
This centralized methodology drives
workflow control providing a real-time view
of the inspection orders.
With technology innovation, the market
is leapfrogging into maturity, exhibiting fast
growth. Some of the market trends are as
follows:
Changing market dynamics
M&As consolidating the NDT market
rapidly: The NDT market reflects a high
degree of consolidation, particularly in the
US and Europe. While the larger companies
are killing competition by acquiring smaller
ones, the stakeholders are also expressing
significant interest on research-driven, niche
technology specialists such as spin-offs from
a technology lab or a technical institution.
The acquisition of TEAMS (Testing and
Engineering of Aeronautical Materials and
Structures), which is a spin-off from the
University of Seville, Spain by US based
aerospace testing specialist Element Group
can be cited as an example. TEAMS held a
Nadcap accreditation for destructive testing,
non-metallic testing and non-destructive
testing and further reinforces Element’s
portfolio in NDT. Earlier, Element also acquired
UK based materials testing company NDT to
increase its capabilities in non-destructive
testing, mechanical testing and metallurgical
testing service provider in Europe. Its recent
acquisition of UK-based Aerotech expanded
its radiography capabilities, spanning digital,
film, high energy, and computed radiography
capabilities. US-based Sintavia’s acquisition
of its Hollywood-based neighbour QC
Laboratories is also an example of killing
competition in the local market.
Collaborative Go-To-Market Strategy:
The market witnesses a drift from the
conventional typical surface-only inspection
technology to detailed analysis, particularly
for hard-to-reach structures in an aircraft. For
this kind of in-depth analysis, the stakeholders
are also adopting a more collaborative GTM
directed towards offering a holistic material
testing solution to the customers. Spirit
AeroSystems, for instance, has partnered
with NDT Solutions for the commercialization
of Spirit's ultrasonic inspection technology
for integrated composite structures. Also,
composite aerostructures manufacturer
Strata Manufacturing collaborated with
France-based Assistance Aéronautique et
14
JULY
2020
NDT is poised to
become a critical
element in the endto-end process of
identifying glitches
before they affect
uptime and the safe
operation of aircraft
Aérospatiale (AAA) for aircraft manufacturing
support services involving NDT.
Cross-vertical collaboration to drive
innovation: Aerospace has often been a
point of confluence for innovations from
various industries. Consistently, market
participants from different verticals has
been exploring opportunities with NDT in
aerospace industry. Creaform, which offers
NDT solutions for the oil and gas industry,
has been looking at partnering with
aircraft manufacturers to test a new surface
inspection metrology solution. The solution
uses 3D scanning to analyse external surface
defects on aircraft parts due to bird strikes,
lighting and hail damage. Also, Japanese
optics and reprography specialist Olympus’
adaptive ultrasonic phased array can be
used for ultrasonic inspection of composite
components with complex structural
nomenclatures. The technology leverages
precise alignment of the ultrasonic beams
to the object’s actual shape and deliver high
efficiency in inspection reducing rescan
instances.
Product
engineering
alterations:
From a product engineering perspective,
the NDT instruments are undergoing
considerable transformation. Ergonomics for
eddy current tools, for example, are being
modified to make them lighter and less
arduous to use. Along with this, a portable
dashboard (sometimes with touchscreen)
supporting the display of multiple signal
outputs simultaneously, are being attached
to the instruments presenting an end-to-
end visual experience for the inspectors. On
top of this the software and the connectivity
layer provide the storage of eddy current
test configurations in the instrument as well
as modify the signals for test applications.
Different probe types are supported with
provisions of USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth
connectivity.
The way ahead
With the impact of COVID-19 pandemic,
the global commercial aerospace industry is
expected to shift focus from manufacturing
new aircraft to the remodeling and
refurbishing of old aircraft. This would
necessitate intrinsic testing of components,
to undertake a cautious assessment of
parts which are usable and the ones which
needs to be replaced. NDT is expected to
play a significant role in accelerating this
assessment, reducing the time to make
an aircraft ready to be airborne again. The
disruptions in the aerospace manufacturing
segment are expected to have considerable
additively manufactured or 3D-printed
parts in these models which needs to be
tested appropriately across product design,
quality assurance (QA), and failure analysis
phases. Specific components such as turbine
blades, which are cast from lightweight
metal around ceramic cores, can use NDT for
testing its endurance against a jet engine’s
high-temperature operating environment.
Its entrenched hollow air-cooling channels
can be effectually designed to prevent
breaking or melting. Moreover, during
manufacturing, small amounts of ceramic,
which are sometimes suspended in cooling
channels, restricts airflow.Moreover, small
amounts of ceramics that may be remnants
from manufacturing. As a result, failure of a
single blade leads to collapse of an entire jet
engine. A resilient NDT-driven QA process
can be employed to identify blades with flaw.
Insights from these testing processes can
also benefit other industries such as energy
and utilities through advanced design of
wind turbine blades.
To conclude, as the aviation industry jumps
back to normal operations, refurbishment
and maintenance requirements are expected
to become more demanding. NDT is poised
to become a critical element in the end-toend process of identifying glitches before
they affect uptime and the safe operation of
aircraft.
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