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Thread: Boeing 737 faulty parts allegation?

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    Boeing 737 faulty parts allegation?

    Any one else heard of this Boeing 737 faulty parts allegation?
    http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...231468,00.html

    As I understand it, computers should accurately manufacture parts however the subcontractor Ducommun was doing them by hand.

    Not sure about the Sky News "exclusive":
    http://foi.missouri.edu/whistleblowi...leblowers.html
    http://www.motherjones.com/news/upda...lightrisk.html
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...600803_pf.html
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    Havent read the story, but its been going on for ages, Ive been out the industry for a good 8 years now, and there were always service bulletins coming out warning of 'fake' parts

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    Quote Originally Posted by Eazieb
    Ive been out the industry for a good 8 years now, and there were always service bulletins coming out warning of 'fake' parts
    there's a difference between counterfeit/3rd party parts used (possibly knowingly) in maintenance though & incorrectly manufactured/ faulty parts from the correct supplier especially if fitted in original manufacture of the vehicle.

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    Sounds more like a case of a disgruntled former employee to me.

    And to the post above, many (indeed most) parts on aircraft are still hand drilled. An NC machine would only be used for something with extremely tight tolerances (e.g. an engine part). If that were the case, the story would be about CFM international & not Boeing.

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    This is generally what happens.

    Supplier has to supply x number of parts by date y. Supplier has problems with parts that are picked up at inspection. Supplier tries to remake/rework parts. Supplier is going to miss deadline. Supplier management tells workers to ship the parts anyway otherwise they won't meet the dealine. Purchaser expects supplier to have inspected parts and they go into store. Parts go onto assembly line and don't fit or aren't to spec. Aircraft producer says we won't meet the dealine for supplying aircraft to whomever so fit them or individual workers go "these parts don't fit, I know I'll drill some holes/bash it some more oh look it fits, problem solved".

    I know some true stories of workers actually altering parts to make them fit and because of them actually downing aircraft and killing people. You'd also be surprised at the number of fake parts floating about that less scrupulous airlines use.

    I have had to "quarantine" parts in order to get them inspected properly before shipping to a certain aero-engine manufacturer otherwise they would have simply been sent to meet a deadline. On inspection 10% were shown to be cracked.

    Quarantining is a process where the parts are effectively locked away and have to be released via certain procedures in order for them to join the supply chain again.

    It's also not uncommon for this to happen.

    Supplier rings up Company and says "um we didn't have this material that is the spec for this bit so we made it out of xyz, can you give us a concession?" I have even known purchasing people to make decisions that would require an authorised decision by the Materials Dept such as chance in material or process, something along the lines of

    Supplier - we need to make this turbine blade out of plasticine cos it's too expensive to make them from nickel based super alloys.

    Purchaser - yeah no worries just do what you need to to get us the parts on time.

    Materials engineeering Dept - You did what!!! ffs you are a bunch of ********. You can't just do that it's not to drawing spec and would need to be signed off by us and the Chief Engineer!! then we have to sort out the mess.

    It is a constant battle against muppets who put cost as the bottom line and don't understand that quality is paramount. With alot of manufacturing being moved to India and China it's a real struggle to keep the quality up to standard.
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    Boeing 737s, 727s and below apparently have a problem with the rudder too, whereby it jams at an angle, causing the plane to spiral down uncontrollably. It's caused a few accidents too.

    http://www.b737.org.uk/rudder.htm

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