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Italian Police Investigating Low Quality Parts Intended For Boeing Jets
Prosecutors in Italy seized components that were intended for Boeing 787 aircraft production yesterday due to the failure to meet technical standards. (simpleflying.com) Mehr...
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Disappointing to hear this from that region of Italy. Prior to retiring, my difficulties were American suppliers who assumed steel was steel, aluminum was aluminum (never worked with titanium). What a difference when I relocated to Europe for a few years and they gave metal certification reports, weld certs, etc., with every shipment. Sad to hear they've been downhill for years as this appears to be a long ongoing issue.
I used to work for a company that distributed mostly aftermarket aircraft parts. We were all very cautious of who we supplied too and most of our customers were in Asia from our Atlanta distribution warehouse. Every part has certifications from a tiny screw to an oxygen generator. If a downed aircraft had one of our parts it would be tracked as long as maintenance documented the log books correctly.
Cheap Chinese made metals I'd suggest.
belzybob, you are spot on! Back in the day, 80's thru mid 90's, I lived at the airport and when not flying I was wrenching. We did a lot of annuals on 300 and 400 series Cessnas and stainless steel screw kits were popular. Hundreds of screws! More than one kit was not only inferior metal, but also dimensionally incorrect. So much so that an old 14 volt Makita would strip the screw head half way in because they were soft, not stainless and too large for the nut plate. These kits came from Aviall, Superior Air Parts et.al., not some parts gypsie's van, ergo, not the cheap stuff and not a new problem.
I think a lot of this sort of thing will turn up in the next year in a whole lot of industries. Companies and government agencies need to stay on top of this.
Aha!
