Rolls’ global ambition

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 30 Nov 2004 10:33

Rolls-Royce’s global partnership ambitions were underlined yesterday with separate announcements of a big new gas turbine order and a major new continental European plant.

The aerospace, defence and marine group said it had won an order worth more than $40 million to supply nine gas turbines for the Korean Navy’s destroyer programme.

The gas turbine generators sets will provide the main electrical power system for the programme’s three ships. Deliveries will begin in 2006 and the first ship will start in-service trials in 2008.

Similar turbines, which will provide combat system power, are already in service with the US and Japanese Services.

The order, which came from Seoul-based gas turbine equipment supplier Samsung Techwin, will see the first gas turbine and generator set being produced at the Rolls-Royce Indianapolis plant, and the other eight being assembled by Samsung Techwin from Rolls-Royce supplied kits.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce and Lufthansa Technik announced that a site near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, will be the location of their 100 million Euro aero engine overhaul joint venture. The facility will create around 500 jobs.

N3 Engine Overhaul Services was founded by Rolls-Royce and Lufthansa Technik AG in February 2003 and from 2007 it will provide technical support for Rolls-Royce Trent engines which power the European Airbus aircraft.

Details of the facility are now being planned with construction work due to begin at the end of 2005, with completion expected at the end of 2006. The N3 joint venture workforce will grow to around 250 by the end of the first year of operations and is expected to increase to around 500 within three years. The facility will have the capacity to handle 200 engines per year and in addition to engine servicing, the company will also offer the repair of engine parts. Servicing the Trent engines of Lufthansa’s own planned fleet is expected to account for up to 40 per cent of its work volume. A similar volume of work is expected to come from European, African and American customers whose engines are covered by Rolls-Royce maintenance agreements.

The Rolls-Royce repair and overhaul organisation has its headquarters in Derby, UK, where a new £30 million repair and overhaul facility is currently under construction. A further £45 million is being invested by the company in a new repair and overhaul facility in East Kilbride, Scotland.

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