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Au total dix sites à travers le monde ont été, ou vont être, labellisés par l'Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, qui s'efforce d'élaborer un cadre réglementaire fondé sur ses guides de bonne pratique.
English Version:
Aircraft recycling: a bull market
A total of ten sites around the world have been, or soon will be, given a seal of approval by the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association, which is developing a regulatory framework based on its best practice guides.
What has the Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA) achieved nearly three years after it was set up in Châteauroux? "Today the organization has about forty members in a dozen countries," says its executive director Martin Fraissignes, whereas in 2006, there were just ten founding members. "AFRA does not prospect new customers; manufacturers come to us under their own steam [...]. We can develop BMP (Best Management Practices) on the basis of our members' domain knowhow."
BMP Guide
During AFRA's first three years, eight members successfully passed the various steps to AFRA accreditation. There is already a second version of the BMP Guide. Version 1.0 was published in August 2008 and dealt with methods for dismantling aircraft airframes. The guide is divided into 45 practices that cover every aspect of dismantling and recycling. "It has become a Bible for anyone wishing to dismantle aircraft," says Martin Fraissignes.
Version 2.0 was released in May 2009 and gave considerable space to the problem of engines, the primary "equipment" to require a recycling solution. This involved working out clear, precise terms for airworthiness to ensure the traceability of parts and components that will be brought back into service, and also the conditions under which they become unusable. These parts need to be properly cannibalized so that those parts that are no longer "flight-worthy" will not find their way onto the black market for non-compliant spare parts.
Members of the association come from right across the Civil Aviation spectrum, including manufacturers (OEMs), MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul, or maintenance, repair and overhaul) suppliers, training centers, recycling providers and navigation centers. The 45 rules cover plants, training, traceability and documentation, tools, inventory management, recycling and the environment. It also addresses issue such as raw materials, hourly rates, market prices for spare parts, and more. The BMP guide covers every type of aircraft, says Martin Fraissignes.
Carbon
In the fields, of composite materials, AFRA deputy executive director Bill Carberry (recycling project manager at Boeing Commercial Airplanes) has revealed that he and the British firm Milled Carbon have developed a method for recycling composite materials, hitherto considered as non-recyclable yet increasingly used in the production of next generation airframes. Boeing, an early member of AFRA, is committed to sharing its knowledge with other members. In December 2008, for example, along with four others, Boeing began to recycle the first experimental carbon fuselage section produced to demonstrate the Boeing 787. "Shredded" carbon was recovered and some of it used to create an experimental armrest for an economy class seat, he said, producing an example. This was, of course, only the first stage, as the process will have to be industrialized to enhance the mechanical properties of these recycled parts. Carbon is like aluminum alloys as they too have not yet been recycled for structural aerospace applications. "Ultimately," said Bill Carberry, "the goal is to increase the volume of recycled materials from 70% today to 95% in six or seven years' time. "
This determination to recycle materials also involves initiatives such as those started by Alcan with Tarmac Aerosave in Tarbes, visited this week by Martin Malvy, President of the Midi-Pyrenees Region.
At present, say AFRA's leaders, dismantling has taken a back seat. In 2008, there was nothing like the buzz of activity on the Chateauroux site as there had been during the boom years of 2006-2007, when thirty aircraft were recycled. There is a simple reason for this. According to Yves Basset, Chief Executive of Bartin Aero Recycling, "the resale of raw materials usually pays for the dismantling costs [...], but the prices of a commodity such as aluminum fell so low in 2008 that we should have asked the owner to make a contribution towards recycling." This is not part of the overall plan, especially as a manager has to recycle an airplane whose owner has gone bankrupt, as sometimes happens.
Two approaches
Despite their apparent similarity, the AFRA and Tarmac Aerosave initiatives have different agendas. Tarmac Aerosave was set up by Airbus to help in dismantling end-of-life aircraft. This is now underway as European airplane fleets reach their age limit of between 25 and 30 years. The project also emerged from a regional plan to develop an industrial player in the Aerospace Valley competitiveness hub. The company aims to be a profitable operator, backed by shareholders such as Airbus, Sita France, Snecma (Safran group and another member of AFRA), Equi'Aéro, TASC Aviation and Aeroconseil. It has its own facilities and began airplane dismantling operations in late 2008, obtaining its EASA Part 145 accreditation in April this year. Tarmac Aerosave applies techniques developed in the Pamela demonstration project funded by the European Life Program, aimed at reducing the human impact on the environment.
Regulation
AFRA establishes rules based on the pooled experience of all companies, and does not try and set itself up as an operator. The Châteauroux site certainly plays a symbolic role, as it is the industrial location of the maintenance players Valliere Group (with its Europe Aviation and JMV Aviation subsidiaries that trade spare parts after dismantling) and Bartin Recycling Group (a Veolia subsidiary). In addition to the eight sites that received an AFRA seal of approval in the last three years (mainly in the U.S.), two other sites are being created, one in the United Kingdom and another in Italy. AFRA works closely with regulatory agencies such as EASA in Europe and the FAA in the United States, say its executives, as the purpose is to ensure that its best practice guidelines are recognized and ultimately enacted as official industry standards.
The dismantling market has a particularly promising future. Whoever one talks to, the figures quoted are roughly the same. In twenty years, a total of 6,000 civilian aircraft will be decommissioned and dismantled, in addition to the 3,000 or so that are already waiting to be recycled after dismantling.
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