Keeping aircraft in the air in extreme weather

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Kilfrost has been in the aircraft de-icing business for more than 80 years and, as might be expected, has got rather good at it. Supplying the best possible de-icing fluid is “what we do for a living”, says CEO Gary Lydiate, proud not only of the performance of the state-of-the-art de-icing products made by Kilfrost in the UK, the US, mainland Europe and Asia, but how it has pioneered – and continues to set standards – in the aircraft de-icing market.

Kilfrost spends a big part of its annual budget on research and development, and Lydiate is adamant that a company such as his needs to do just that if it is to remain at the forefront of this industry. Today, some of Kilfrost’s forward thinking concerns possible de/anti-icing substances that could coat an aircraft’s wing and remain effective for days at a time – a huge step forward on the current necessity for aircraft to be de-iced before each and every flight when conditions so dictate.

But that sort of technology is some years off yet. And, for the moment, there are plenty of other reasons for R&D to occupy Lydiate’s mind. Nowhere is Kilfrost’s innovatory spirit more obvious today than in its work on environmentally friendly de-icing fluids. It has helped develop de-icing fluids based on glycol derived from sustainable sources, and its DFsustain corn-based fluid is now much in demand. Already in use in New Zealand, at Lambert St Louis in the US and with All Nippon Airways (ANA) in Japan, enquiries are being taken from customers and potential customers thick and fast, Lydiate declares.

Meeting the ever-changing needs of customers is of course a full-time occupation for any supplier. Kilfrost supplies to airport authorities (Frankfurt-Main’s Fraport, for example), airlines (such as KLM) and to third-party service providers (among them handlers Swissport and Servisair). These all have slightly different needs of course, in terms of volumes and types of fluid required, as well as very different capabilities to handle and store the materials.

This last point is important – some airports, for example, can store far more de-icing fluid than others, and the frequency of deliveries required over the winter months will differ markedly as a result. Moreover, for any customer, predicting the harshness of a coming winter and as a consequence the amount of de-icing fluid that it will need, is incredibly difficult. Thus, in almost all cases, Kilfrost will be asked to supply a certain quantity of fluid up-front pre-wintertime and then be asked to top up stocks as the season progresses.

Hence, says Lydiate, “logistics is everything” – making sure that the fluid turns up where it should, when it should. That may involve, as it did recently, Kilfrost supplying 1,000 tonnes of de-icing product to a European airport just to tide it over a single four-day severe weather event. If that ability to react quickly or the delivery system fails, airports will feel the effects very quickly indeed and facilities might even have to suspend operations as a result.

The company has about 30% market share, Lydiate estimates. Not bad, for a relatively small company compared to the aviation de-icing specialist divisions of big corporate concerns like Dow in the US. But, he insists, Kilfrost continues to set the ‘Gold Standard’ in the aircraft de-icing business.

Safeaero

As important to the aircraft de/anti-icing process as the fluid is the equipment used at airports to spray the mixture safely and effectively over snow and ice-covered aircraft. One of the leading suppliers in this sector is Sweden-based Safeaero.

It is perhaps best known for its one-man de-icing units, most notably its 220 series vehicles, all of which are crewed by just one operator. That means cost savings and simplicity of operation, plus no safety concerns that might arise when more than one individual – ie, a driver and an operator – is involved.

Furthermore, all of the 220 series units are built as purpose-designed de-icing units. Indeed, that is another key differentiator of this line, says Safeaero’s sales manager Michal Hak. Many of the company’s competitors offer standard truck-based chassis on which they mount de-icing booms and operator’s cabins – but with Safeaero’s 220 vehicles, everything is purpose-built from scratch.

Of course, there is a price to pay for this, but the long-term return on investment can be well worth the initial outlay. Safeaero also offers a cheaper, truck chassis-based system called Typhoon, as well as a smaller 210XXS model more suited for smaller airports catering to smaller aircraft such as turboprops.

Perhaps Safeaero’s biggest customer is KLM, which acquired 27 220 series units for use at its home hub of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, but other customers include Scandinavian carrier SAS, Vienna Airport and Swissport. Interestingly, each type of customer tends to prefer a different type of de-icing unit. The handlers, often charging according to the volume of de-icing fluid sprayed, will tend to go for cheaper models such as Typhoon. The airlines and airports may well opt for the 220 services units, which are more expensive but will also be more efficient in terms of minimising the levels of glycol used and are faster – allowing a more rapid throughput of aircraft in and out of the de-icing process.

Hak identifies two big trends in on-airport de-icing today. The first concerns glycol, and its high cost. Equipment suppliers such as Safeaero are keen to limit the quantity of glycol that their customers will have to expend, and Hak points to the fact that his company’s de-icing equipment allows a ratio of glycol to water sprayed as low as 4% (and as high as 70%) for the first stage of an aircraft’s de-icing and anti-icing process – when the equipment is used to spray de-icing fluid in order to wash the snow and ice from an aircraft’s surfaces.

For the second stage of the process, anti-icing, different blends of 50, 75 or even 100% anti-icing Type II and IV fluid mixtures can be sprayed by Safeaero units (the different ‘Types’ of aviation de-icing fluids, denoted by the Roman numerals of I to IV, are each used to provide different levels of protection on different types of aircraft). This is made possible by the equipment incorporating three separate tanks, for water, de-icing fluid and anti-icing fluid.

Also part of the effort to minimise the use of glycol in the de-icing/anti-icing process is the use of forced air de-icing. Blowing over a snow-covered aircraft saves significantly on the need for water or chemicals as a first stage in the de-icing and anti-icing process; the function can also be performed at the gate prior to leaving the stand, allowing time to be saved during the chemical anti-icing that has to take place off the stand, usually at a remote location on the way to the runway. To this end, Safeaero’s 220 series and Typhoon units can use forced air for the initial phase of snow and ice clearing, Hak notes.

The second noticeable trend in aircraft de-icing that he identifies concerns achieving greater cost-efficiencies through the use of telematics and centralised co-ordinating systems. Safeaero’s web-based offering, which the company calls the Deicing Management System, not only allows each vehicle and operator unit to send back data on what fluid it has sprayed and in what quantities, but also allows Safeaero’s de-icing co-ordination centre to instruct each individual operator on what he should be doing and when. All the relevant information is stored on a database and can be recalled and analysed for later study with a view to identifying further efficiencies.

According to Hak, demand for Safeaero’s de-icing units is increasing, largely due to a larger number of handlers – itself the function of new regulations that called for greater competition amongst service providers at airports by abolishing handling monopolies at gateways – requiring more equipment. The fact that air traffic continues to grow over time will also mean more demand for de-icing units, he points out.

De-icing support

Another important supplier of de-icing equipment to the aviation community is Global Ground Support of Kansas in the US. Global Ground Support offers a range of GSE, from ground power units to de-icing vehicles and equipment. The latter are designed, says Global, for simplicity of use, ease of maintenance and reliability.

Various de-icers within the portfolio can handle aircraft sizes from small regional models to aeroplanes as large as the A380. All its de-icers make use of conventional heated Type 1 fluids for de-icing, while on most of its models undiluted anti-icing Type IV fluids can be sprayed from a second, separate tank using a positive displacement pump.

One of Global’s de-icers, of which it is very proud, is called Orion. This has “year-round usability”, being able to combine other functions in the same piece of equipment – as well as de-icing the tail of an aircraft as large as a B747 (its basket can reach a height of nearly 15 metres), it can also act as a pushback vehicle for aircraft as heavy as B737s and A321s and can, once the quick-release basket is detached and the appropriate attachment installed, act as a forklift or crane with up to an 8,000 pound lifting capacity.

No change in the set-up of the vehicle is required for aircraft pushback, so Orion can de-ice an aircraft and then be used to push the aircraft off the gate. To make the necessary changes for Orion to serve as a forklift or crane takes only 10 minutes.

Global has worked hard on what it calls AirPlus, a forced air system that allows operators to use significantly less fluid than would otherwise be the case if only spraying glycol. And the company has also developed a new de-icing telemetry system called MIDAS. It is being installed in four units with Sun Country Airlines at Minneapolis – St Paul International Airport.

Clearly, this is one de-icing equipment manufacturer that is looking to provide a whole range of systems for its customers in an effort to maximise efficiency and minimise costs.

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