A day in the life of Alfred – a robot that builds aircraft engines
How automation is helping cut a GTF assembly process time in half
It’s 7:30 a.m. at Pratt & Whitney’s Eagle Services Asia engine center in Singapore – and it’s time for a robot named Alfred to start his daily double shift.
Working within a 26-by-20-foot pen, its job is to prepare rotors – first by placing them in an industrial oven, then waiting for them to cool, and finally transferring them to a hydraulic stacking system that puts them in alignment.
The task, though important, is monotonous. It also requires great precision.
For Alfred, however, it’s no big deal.
“Alfred doesn’t mind the pressure. He’s built for it,” said Gilbert Sim, director of Aftermarket Operations, CORE and Technology Transformation at Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business.
PW1100G-JM engine assembly at the Pratt & Whitney West Palm Beach Engine Center
Learn more about the GTF engineThe robot was made for one purpose: to assemble a high-pressure compressor rotor for the GTF PW1100G-JM engine that powers the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft.
In a broader context, it is also an example of Pratt & Whitney’s investment in automation, connectivity and data analytics – advancements in manufacturing often grouped under the label “Industry 4.0.”
And now they’re expanding those advancements to Pratt’s maintenance, repair and overhaul, or MRO, facilities.
“We’re putting these technologies to work, boosting MRO performance and driving efficiencies across the shop floor – at an impressive pace.”
Gilbert Sim | director of Aftermarket Operations | CORE and Technology Transformation
How Alfred was born
Alfred came about at the suggestion of a technician who sought to speed up the 14-hour process to assemble an HPC module, the part of the engine that compresses air before combustion.
Using best practices from Pratt’s production facilities, along with RTX’s CORE operating system — a set of methods and tools to improve processes — the team at Eagle Services Asia found that automating the rotor build could cut assembly time in half and free up three operators to take on more complex tasks such as rotor balancing.
The benefits were so alluring that the efforts to get Alfred on the factory floor kicked into fast-forward. Working as a cross-functional team, Eagle Services Asia rolled out Alfred in record time.
“We went from a concept in 2021 to design review in 2022 to a fully tested and operational automated cell in 2023,” Sim said. “From start to finish in two and a half years.”
Value of automation
Pratt & Whitney uses automation to improve safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Key benefits include:
Enhanced repeatability and reliability, reducing rework
Shorter process time and less waste
Customized fixtures that integrate software with hardware while minimizing footprint
Inside Alfred’s day
The robot's first shift starts when an operator loads hardware into the cell.
With the push of a button, Alfred springs into motion, effortlessly swapping out the tools on the end of its arm just as a person would change gloves, and tackling tasks that, to a human operator, carry the risk of burns and other occupational injuries.
One-by-one, Alfred heats each part, expanding the materials for tighter fits and tolerances during joining, while moving parts concurrently to the hydraulic stacking system to maximize efficiency.
Next, the system presses together the parts – the front hub, eight rotors and a rear hub.
“The process of joining them up is just like a Lego process,” Sim said. “It will stack them, press them, do the necessary heating just to make sure that the temperature increases so that you are able to join the whole eight-stage rotor together.”
Fortunately for Alfred, the hydraulic stacking system does most of the heavy lifting.
As a safety precaution, the cell is equipped with motion detection, a door safety system and stop button.
“It’s a very robust mistake-proofing system,” Sim said.
The process typically takes about seven hours, or one hour short of a full shift. That means Alfred has a little downtime before starting the next assembly.
Alfred, the HPC stacking robot at Eagle Services Asia, prepares for its next shift on the shop floor.
Accelerating automation
While Alfred is the newest robot at Pratt & Whitney to make aircraft engines, it won’t be the last. A robot named Athena is set to soon join Alfred at Eagle Services Asia, where it will perform part of the main engine build sequence. Pratt & Whitney is developing and testing the robot, with plans to bring it online in 2025.
The business is on a fast track to operationalize robotics and they want Eagle Services Asia to serve as a model for other Pratt & Whitney facilities.
“We’re putting together a standardized playbook to share with other Pratt & Whitney MRO shops,” Sim said. “This will help them cut down on implementation time and quickly learn from our experience, making their process smoother and faster.
Sim’s team also set up the Singapore Technology Accelerator, and North America Technology Accelerator, which is located in Florida. Both are known as “centers of excellence” for aftermarket operations.
The Singapore Technology Accelerator and the Eagle Services Asia team aim to deploy automation to other repetitive processes for the GTF engine, including the engine core and low-pressure compressor module builds. Their work reflects efforts to apply the principles of automation to different parts of the company – even those that take on substantially different tasks.
“I use these two technology accelerators as an incubator to work with the businesses to drive idea creation and idea optimization,” Sim said. “I call it the ‘innovation playground.’”
