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 its 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,” says Gilbert Sim, director of aftermarket operations, CORE and technology transformation at Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business.

The robot was made for one purpose: to assemble a high-pressure compressor rotor for the GTF PW1100G-JM jet engine, which 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.”

Now the company is expanding those advancements to its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities. “We’re putting these technologies to work, boosting MRO performance and driving efficiencies across the shop floor at an impressive pace,” says Sim.

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 freed 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 says. “From start to finish in two and a half years.”

This robot assembles high-pressure compressor rotors for the jet engine that powers the Airbus A320neo family of aircraft. Photo courtesy Pratt & Whitney

Value of Automation in Assembly

Pratt & Whitney uses automation to improve safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Key benefits include:    

•  Safer operations with a lower risk of injury.    
•  Enhanced repeatability and reliability, reducing rework.    
•  Shorter process time and less waste.    
•  Customized fixtures that integrate software with hardware while minimizing footprint.

Building an Aircraft Engine: 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 says. “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 says.

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.

The robot places rotors into an industrial oven, waits for them to cool, and then transfers them to a hydraulic press. Photo courtesy Pratt & Whitney

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.

Pratt & Whitney is on a fast track to operationalize robotics, and it wants Eagle Services Asia to serve as a model for its other assembly plants.

“We’re putting together a standardized playbook to share with other Pratt & Whitney MRO shops,” Sim says. “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 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 says. “I call it the ‘innovation playground.’”

For more information on robotics and aerospace manufacturing, read these articles:
Pratt & Whitney Rethinks Jet Engine Assembly
Piper Aircraft Integrates Robot on Assembly Line
Assembly Automation Takes Off in Aerospace Industry