Aircraft Manufacturing Concession

Balasubramaniyam K
This white paper describes the process or steps involved in concession for
manufacturing deviati ons. "Concession" is defi ned to use a limited quanti ty of
material/parts not manufactured exactly in accordance with the manufacturer's
approved design specifi cati ons or to eff ect major modifi cati on/repair not completely
in conformity with that approved by manufacturers, but are acceptable to Regulatory
Authority, keeping the safety of aircraft in view.

The manufacturing of the aircraft components involve various operati ons to be

performed which may or may not need human interventi on. Under certain
circumstances, there are deviati ons in the way the operati on is executed and non-
conformances occur, which could be due to human or machine error. Since the aircraft
components are extremely expensive, there is a need to investi gate if the aff ected
component can be uti lized with some modifi cati ons without aff ecti ng its functi on in
any way.
Non-Conforming
Part from
Manufacturing.
Release as • Strength/F&DT
concession Request • Installation
• Interchangeability
• Functionality
Release the Design Asses the Non • Mfg Process
Solution to conformity and • Airworthiness
Manufacturing categorize Requirement
• In-service
implications
• Cumulative effect per
other NCs

Airworthiness
Design Solution
Approval

Stress Analysis
• Static
• Fatigue and
Damage Tolerance

FIGURE 1 - CONCESSION PROCESS

In order to understand the concept of concessions bett er, an example is explained
below assuming a situati on where a concession needs to be raised.

Let’s say, during the assembly of front spar to skin, the producti on person accidentally
used a drill bigger than drawing stated size and eventually drilled a hole which was
bigger in size than as required by drawing at that locati on. Now both the aff ected
components i.e. spar and skin are very big parts and hence it’s not practi cally possible
to scrap the components and manufacture new ones as it will involve huge costs and
ti me lag also. Thus in order to use the same components, the producti on department
raises a concession i.e. a request to use the aff ected components with or without
further rework. This request (Concession) is then send to Design Department where it
is analysed for possible soluti ons.

The Design Department looks into various aspects to assess whether the divergence
can be accepted as it is or whether some rework is needed in order to accept the
divergence. Design department then provides an opti mal soluti on for the divergence
and sends the concession to the stress department for further analysis. Stress
department’s analyses the impact of carrying out the design provided soluti on and
checks whether the soluti on provided by the Design department is acceptable or not.
Depending upon the results obtained by the stress department, the concession is
either passed onto quality department or send back to Design department for change
in soluti on in which case the design department provides some another soluti on and
again send back the concession to Stress department.

Aft er a concession is passed by Stress department, it goes to Quality department and

then fi nally for Airworthiness check. Aft er been fi nally approved by Quality
department and on approval by Airworthiness department for accepti ng the soluti on,
the concession goes back to Producti on Department where the Design soluti on
fi nalised is implemented upon and any rework is carried out if required.
Below is some of non-conformance generally arising during manufacturing of aircraft
and the aspects to be considered while providing design soluti ons
• Locati on errors
• Change in hole size
• Indentati ons on components
• Holes not drilled properly
• Change in profi le of a component
• Holes not conforming to design required procedures
1. Minimum material removal: there can be many possible ways to clear non-
conformances for each type of defect. However a soluti on resulti ng in minimum excess
material removal from the components should be given priority.
2. Accessibility: while providing a soluti on for any divergence, proper care should
be taken to ensure that there is enough accessibility for the producti on department to
carry out the specifi ed rework. In case, accessibility is an issue then designer needs to
opt for some other soluti on even though it may be more complex or may have certain
disadvantages.
3. Availability of drills and fasteners: whenever asking the producti on department
to open up any aff ected hole to a bigger size, care should be taken to ensure that the
producti on department has the necessary drill size available for carrying out the
operati on. Also, the fasteners stated to be installed in the design soluti on should be
readily available to producti on department.
4. Edge distances: edge distance on any component for an aff ected hole is the
distance of the hole centre to the nearest free edge of the component. If this distance
falls below a certain limit (generally stated in the company standards or fastener
documents), then there is a chance of distorti on of component while ti ghtening the
fastener. In severe cases, if the edge distance is too low, then a crack may initi ate
while drilling the hole itself and may tear up to the edge. Hence for edge distances
falling below specifi ed limits, proper check should be carried out to ensure that no
distorti ons or cracks are present.
5. Pitches to adjacent fasteners: pitches between adjacent fasteners also play an
important role while reaching a possible soluti on for any divergence. If the pitch gets
too low, then the load concentrati on at that region becomes higher. Similarly if the
pitch becomes too high, then there is a chance of the component to buckle while
taking up load or during fastener installati on.
6. Care should be taken to ensure smooth surfaces, especially at the external
surface of skin. The soluti on provided should not result in abrupt changes in cross
secti on of the component and should not result in cusps, notches or sharp edges as
these can act as stress concentrators.
7. Possibility of fastener installati on: whenever the concession deals with a
fastener hole such as locati on errors or opening up of holes, it should be checked
whether the fastener specifi ed in the design soluti on can be installed at that locati on
or not. For this purpose, few checks are done most importantly being the nut seati ng
calculati on which will be explained in this document later. In nut seati ng calculati on, it
is found out whether there is enough fl at land available for the specifi ed nut to sit or
not. If not, then a spot face may be carried out or a washer may be designed to ensure
full fl at seati ng of the nut.
8. Holes even if produced to some diff erent size than the one specifi ed by
drawing, should be produced using the methods as stated by the drawing itself. For
example, if the drawing states the aff ected hole to be a cold worked hole, then even if
we are opening up the hole, then we should carry out cold working process on it and
then make it to the next possible size.