Rolls Royce takes a $315 million charge to fix 787 engines

While Pratt has gotten its fair share of grief over its geared turbofan, Rolls, is also having issues with its Trent series of engines. The Trent 1000 which powers over 200 787 and some early Trent 900 on older A380's are effected. The issue is that the turbine blades are corroding much faster than anticipated and causing disruptions to airlines. The charge covers the cost of repairing the engines, long term fixes, and compensation to airlines for disrupted schedules.

I'd be curious to see the scope of the problem and wonder if there was some significant issue with the metallurgy used to make the blades?

www.seattletimes.com...

Maybe its the added Barium2 and aluminium to the petrol mixture

a reply to: FredT
Putting aside damage caused by blocked cooling holes caused by melted sand residue from the Middle East, the other problems we are seeing (we run quite a few early series T900's so I'm assuming its similar on the T1000) are blistering on the blades and premature wear and damage to the erosion seals, particularly on the IP and HP sections.

Heat treatment issues?

a reply to: Blackfinger
More like a combination of reaching materials limits, quality control and the foibles of mass production.Couple these with new engine designs and this is what you get. I wouldn't necessarily blame RR either, seems all the major powerplant manufacturers are having trouble in one way or another.

Several links away:

"Unlike most 787 operators, ANA uses the jet for short flights on Japanese domestic routes.

Flying shorter flights would produce more wear and tear on an engine designed to spend 10 or more hours cruising between continents, said Robert Mann, an aviation consultant.

Corrosion caused by sulfides could be caused by the “combination of higher temperature stresses in the climb portion” of flight, followed by shorter than typical periods at cruising altitude, he said."

This article says it's the medium pressure compressor blades. Could the air around Japan and New Zealand have high levels of sulphides due to pollution? The only source of Sulphur around Norway would be cruise liners. Those create incredible sunset colours.