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Lufthansa Technik has secured its first Australian customer for its Cyclean engine washing technology.
The aviation services provider said on Friday Qantas had joined about 40 other carriers across five continents using its Cyclean Engine Wash service for the CFM56 powerplants on the airline’s Boeing 737-800 fleet.
The work has been licensed to 145 Aviation Services, a division of Permagard Australia Group.
Having secured Qantas as its first Australian customer at Melbourne, the company plans to add other Cyclean stations in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.
“We are delighted to have won Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, as a customer,” Lufthansa Technik head of engine life cycle services Oliver Winter said in a statement.
“Following this successful launch in Melbourne, we want to continually expand our network of Cyclean stations around the country.”
Lufthansa Technik AG brought its mobile Cyclean engine wash service station van to Australia in March 2016. The vehicle was based in Melbourne conducting demonstrations of the technology for airline customers. It was also on display at the recently concluded Australian International Airshow at Avalon.
The company says engine washes using the Cyclean technology can be conducted directly at the gate, saving time and resources. Further, the process is about 70 per cent quicker and uses less water than other engine cleaning methods.
Some 80,000 engines have been cleaned using Cyclean, which is suitable for the leading engine manufacturers such as General Electric, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, CFMI, and IAE.
The Permagard website said Cyclean sprays pre-heated water directly into the core engine at high pressure, which “provides a fine, evenly distributed amount of atomised water through the engine’s gas path”.
No post-wash engine runs are required, and the overall service time for each engine is less than one hour.
Lufthansa Technik posted a video of the Cyclean engine wash process on its YouTube channel in July 2015:
Greg
says:What about engine internal corrosion. Corrosion is a gas turbines worst enemy. Is the solutions etc. used been checked for possible corrosion properties especially in the long term.
Dave
says:Greg, they probably use hot demineralised water only. If there is no need for post clean engine runs then I can only assume that this would be the procedure. Qantas stopped using detergent based comp washes on their wide body fleet years ago opting instead for hot demineralised water. Far less chance of false ‘fumes in cabin’ from detergent residue that way.