- Prolong Window Life
- Improve Optical Clarity
- Save Money
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Prolongs window life.
- Arrest Damage: Scratches are stress risers. As such, not being static deformities, they propagate. Maintenance Manual (MM) allowable damage limits are specified to address and arrest this damage growth factor at a safe threshold. It is addressed through repair or replace requirements. Likewise for pits, chips, and crazing.
- Avoid Replacement: Rather than replacing a window when allowable damage limits have been reached or surpassed, at that juncture repair will enable safe, continued use of the window at much lower cost than the alternative and required replacement option.
- Repair Early: In addition to allowable damage limits, MM’s specify a minimum material thickness for windows. Removal of damage at the earliest sign will help retain maximum material thickness, allowing for more rounds of future scratch removal, providing an outcome of maximum window lifespan.
Improves the flight crew’s optical clarity, increasing operational safety.
- Damage Removal: By clearing up damage such as pits, chips, scratches, hazing and crazing, impediments to outward vision are removed, resulting in an unobstructed view, allowing for safer piloting.
Saves money: repair cost is much less than equivalent replacement cost.
- In this case repair cost is one tenth the cost of replacement and repair can be repeated many times before the required window replacement threshold is reached. This threshold is defined as the window’s minimum thickness. Each time a window is repaired, some of the material is removed: essentially equivalent to the depth of the damage. The sooner the damage is arrested, the less material removed, the greater the retained acrylic material thickness, thus economically extending window life. Remember: each repair results in like new window clarity. o
- Repair economically extends window life: because the cost of window repair is proportionally so much less than the cost of replacement, many rounds of repair can be applied to a window before the replacement cost is matched, with a correspondingly much greater service life per dollar.
“To avoid further deterioration which could lead to panel replacement, it is recommended that all scoring, crazing, etc. should be rectified in accordance with the SRM as soon as possible” (MM Hawker 800: 56-20-11, page 801)
“Leaving damage in the outer ply of the window may reduce the window’s ultimate service life. Therefore, it is recommended, but not required, that any damage to the window be repaired as soon as practical.” (MM Citation 560: 56-10-00, page 805)
- Repair reduces downtime compared to time required for window replacement:
- Two things to remember: Window repair is much faster than window replacement and window repair most often does not interfere with typical and routine maintenance activities.
- Lear 35 windshield replacement time per side: 100-120 hrs per side. Adds considerably to maintenance downtime as the function of replacement is time consuming to begin with, and is additionally time consuming as virtually no avionics repair or installation can be performed simultaneous to window replacement.
- Lear 35 windshield repair time: 5 hrs. per side. Often done during normal maintenance, adding no extra time to the schedule.
- Our mobile technicians come to you, fitting in with your maintenance schedule. We minimize their travel expense keeping overall cost down.
- **Repair cost can be as low as $1,100 for light damage.
Removes damage before it accelerates beyond allowable limits, avoiding expensive, premature, and mandatory window replacement.
- Most Maintenance Manuals specify: when a window’s damage exceeds a certain depth that the window is required to be either repaired or replaced. If the window can be safely repaired in accordance with MM repair specifications, then we at AWS find it that to replace now would be a premature and avoidable expense.
Increases the window’s structural safety by removal of scratches, pits, chips, and crazing.
- Maintenance Manual damage depth limits: are specified to limit the magnitude of available stress risers left unchecked in windows. Stress risers, introduced by scratches, pits, chips, and crazing, by their very nature and definition introduce weakness points in the acrylic window material. These stress risers are not static compromisers: they grow.
- Three scenarios to choose from:
- A) Elimination of stress risers at the earliest sign: has the added benefit of leaving more material thickness in place: thus increasing total window life.
- B) Elimination at the latest allowable time: when damage has grown to the maximum depth limits allowed by manufacturers.
- C) Buy and install a new window: Premature if damage and thickness are within allowable limits.
- Best Option: Each option minimizes or eliminates risk of material failure, thereby increasing structural safety. Option A is more economical and productive to window longevity. Remember: each repair results in like new window clarity.
Reduces downtime compared to time required for window replacement.
- Two things to remember: Window repair is much faster than window replacement and window repair most often does not interfere with typical and routine maintenance activities.
- Lear 35 windshield repair time: 5 hrs. per side. Often done during normal maintenance, adding no extra time to the schedule.
- Lear 35 windshield replacement time per side: 100-120 hrs per side. Adds considerably to maintenance downtime as the function of replacement is time consuming to begin with, and is additionally time consuming as virtually no avionics repair or installation can be performed simultaneous to window replacement.
Enhances the passenger’s viewing experience, reflecting positively on your maintenance practices.
- Like New Window Clarity: Ever been a passenger on a commercial flight and looked out through scratchy, pitted, crazed, or hazy windows? Didn’t it make you wonder how well the rest of the plane was maintained? Enough said.
See our FAQ for more detail & supporting reference from the Manuals. |
