Pratt & Whitney Opens OEM Facility in Brazil

by Bill Lavender

Looking over the main venue of the 1800-square meter Pratt & Whitney do Brasil facility. On left are racks for engine storage. Note theoverhead red-colored engine and components transfer system.

Recently, the AgAir Update Brasil team visited the new Pratt & Whitney do Brasil facility in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. We were hosted by the company’s general manager, Renato Rafael, along with Human Resources Manager, Carlos Nascimento.

Renato Rafael joined the Pratt & Whitney family three years ago after almost 15 years at Embraer working with startups and operations of Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO). Renato has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Business Administration with 27 years of experience in aviation, mainly as head of MRO.

Pratt & Whitney has made a substantial investment in Brazil to establish an Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) facility spending $24 million USDs to accomplish this feat. Pratt & Whitney’s Brazilian OEM has the ability to completely overhaul all models PT6A, PW200 and eventually PT6C engines. The PT6A engine is used in agricultural aircraft, as well as several models of general aviation aircraft. The PT6C engine is typically used in medium-class helicopters with a shaft horsepower range of 1,600 to 2,000 SHP. The PW200 is a turboprop engine for light-twin helicopters with 500-700 SHP.

An Open House for the new 1,800-square meter facility was held last December 10 with Pratt & Whitney Canada’s president, Maria Della Posta and other dignitaries attending. Included in the $24 million USD investment is a $4 million USD engine test cell built by CEL Aerospace Group. According to Aviation Week magazine, “CEL is a world leader in test equipment for aircraft engines; fixed and rotary wings, business and airline jets, as well as APUs (Auxiliary Power Units) for commercial and military applications. High technology engineering forms the heart of CEL with a focus on innovative design.”

Pratt & Whitney do Brasil General Manager Renato Rafael demonstrates how a PT6 engine is mounted in the engine test cell.

The engine test cell monitoring and control room. The CEL-built engine test cell is capable of testing all engines that Pratt & Whitney doBrasil is certified to overhaul. CEL Aerospace Group is a Canadiancompany. It also manufactured the engine test cell used by Pratt &Whitney in Canada. Montreal, Canada can monitor an engine duringtesting, as well as control the engine remotely.

The turboprop engine test cell at Pratt & Whitney do Brasil is very sophisticated. Besides being operated at its location in Belo Horizonte, engineers at the Pratt & Whitney facility in Montreal, Canada can monitor an engine during testing, as well as control the engine remotely.

The engine test cell’s control room is separate from where the engine is mounted for safety and noise abatement reasons. All recorded data from engine tests are stored on a server in Montreal. The time it takes to test an engine, if all is good, is approximately two days; a ½ day to mount the engine, one day of 8-12 hours of operating the engine and another ½ day to remove the engine from the engine test cell’s mounts. From “clean sheet” (a reference to completion of drawing the building blueprints) to movein, required only an amazing 10 months, from February to December 2019. During this time, all tooling, work stations, two automated storage and retrieval solutions (ASRS) units, overhead engine transport system and administration offices that include individual training and meeting offices were constructed and assembled. Every component of the Belo Horizonte facility is new, from tooling to tool boxes. Pratt & Whitney do Brasil has a long-term land lease from a partner company, IAS (Indústria de Aviação e Serviços), that is also located on the property with its own buildings and maintenance structures. Pratt & Whitney do Brasil, as part of its collaboration with IAS, outsources specific services to it, such as cleaning of parts, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and accessories repairs.

Pratt & Whitney Canada has approximately 10,000 employees worldwide (2020). Currently, there are 60 Pratt & Whitney do Brasil employees. Renato anticipates an additional 50 employees will be working at the Belo Horizonte facility at the peak of capacity. For field operations and representation, Marcelo Feitosa is based in Goianas, Goias, which is relatively, centrally located in the agricultural aviation sector of Brazil. From there, Marcelo can visit with ag-operations for personalized, firsthand service.

Additionally, Pratt & Whitney has a satellite facility in Sorocaba. It is considered extremely important to Pratt & Whitney’s operations in Brazil with its support of customers with its Mobile Repair Teams (MRT), specialized repairs and parts distribution to the entire PT6A family of engines. The facility has 14 highly skilled and experienced technicians in Sorocaba ready to provide on wing support to customers in Brazil, as well as throughout South America.

Very sophisticated automated storage and retrieval solutions (ASRS) “elevators” manufactured by the Switzerland-based Kardex Remstar arevertical lift carousels used to organize and store tooling and parts.The tooling elevator has 52 shelves that rotate vertically, while theparts elevator has 42 shelves. The operator enters a tooling or partnumber into the control unit and the correct shelf rotates to the dooropening. The units were imported from Germany at the cost of $100,000USDs.

To help reduce AOG time for ag operators, currently Pratt & Whitney has rental engines in Brazil of which include the AG series engines. This provides unequalled support for customers that are having their engines serviced in one of Pratt & Whitney’s approved shops worldwide. This is important, as there are currently around 300 PT6A-AG engines operating in Brazil with consistent growth year after year.

Renato says, “Operators of the PT6 engine should not try to be magicians! Pratt & Whitney has already determined the best way to operate and service the engine.” Each year, Pratt & Whitney Canada invests approximately $500 million CADs in Research and Development (R&D). Founded in 1928, Pratt & Whitney is part of United Technologies Company (UTC), a $57.4 billion USDs company (2018). Pratt & Whitney comprises approximately 25% of that revenue, which comes from sales and service. United Technologies has now merged with Raytheon to form RTX.

Worldwide in more than 200 countries, there are over 65,000 Pratt & Whitney Canada engines in operation (2020) with about 5% (+3,400) of those engines in Brazil. Approximately 70% of those engines operate in relative proximity of the Belo Horizonte facility; Minas Gerais, Rio Janeiro and São Paulo states.

Canada may seem like a long way from Brazil for most Brazilian operators. When in fact, with the opening of the Pratt & Whitney do Brasil facility in Belo Horizonte, for ag-operators it is like the Canadian company translocated itself to Brazil. At Pratt & Whitney do Brasil in Belo Horizonte, operators can be assured of fast, efficient and expert, factory-backed support for PT6A-AG engines by the world leader in gas turbine engines, Pratt & Whitney.