The bearing retainer for the IP shaft bearing is to be strengthened and a software patch is issued to shut the engine down if "something" occurs.
Guessing between the lines from the newspaper article; It sounds like RR apparently had already redesigned the bearing retainer/box/housing probably because it was aware that it was distorting under load and allowing oil to get where it wasn't supposed to be in some circumstances.
No problems with that, modifications happen all the time as experience accumulates. The part concerned is probably an elegant tracery of Inconel that might just be a poofteenth too thin..
QF engine that failed apparently didn't have this mod, which probably suggests that RR didn't think it was that critical.
Considering that QF apparently no longer even has the engineering skills to modify a cockpit door lock (Dash 400), and that the A380 engines are owned by RR, QF merely paying a low hourly charge for their use, would there be anyone at Qantas who even knew that RR was having problems with this engine? Would Qantas even have an IPC for the engine? Did QF know that RR made a modification to production and why it made it? Does QF run configuration management on its Trent 972 engine modules or is that left to RR? Would it know which modules had the old or the new part? Would Qantas have had the option of requiring the mod to be made to its engines, or does it have to take what RR gives it?
Exactly how in 2010 is Qantas managing the supply of propulsion to it's aircraft? ....Or is Rolls Royce giving us ignorant colonials what it thinks we deserve? We lost the Westgate Bridge that way.
P.S. "Software patches" have a way of introducing more bugs.
A380 fire: only new engines were fixed
ENGINE-MAKER Rolls-Royce modified its newer Trent 900 aircraft engines to address a potentially dangerous oil leak.
But it failed to fix the issue on older engines such as the one that exploded on a Qantas Airbus near Singapore last week.
The disparity was revealed by a senior Airbus executive yesterday as he explained two fixes the British engineering firm was proposing to get airlines hit by the problem back in the air.
The repairs and an offer by Airbus to send new engines from its production line could lead to the first of the Qantas A380 fleet being back in the air as early as next week.
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Rolls-Royce has produced software that will shut down a Trent 900 engine before it has turbine disc failure, like the one that destroyed the QF32 engine near Singapore and extensively damaged the plane.
It will also install a part, believed to be a bearing box, in engines aimed at preventing the oil leak thought responsible for the fire that caused the intermediate pressure turbine disc to disintegrate.
News that the modifications have already been made to newer Rolls-Royce engines has raised questions about why the engine-maker did not address the problem on older models before last week's spectacular failure.
Rolls-Royce, which faces a hefty compensation bill and is copping flak for its public handling of the explosion, issued a statement last night. It confirmed that the failure of "a specific component in the turbine area of the engine" on QF32 had caused an oil fire that led to the disintegration of the IP turbine disc.
"Our process of inspection will continue and will be supplemented by the replacement of the relevant module according to an agreed program," it said.
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Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said yesterday the airline believed it would be just days before the first A380 flew again.
Mr Leahy said Airbus had not yet seen any signs the Qantas incident had damaged its brand.
A380 fire: only new engines were fixed | The Australian