Taking its battle against high-priced OEM repair and technical manuals and their revisions to a higher level, Extex has placed all of the pertinent tech data for the Rolls-Royce 250 turboshaft engine, including inspection requirements, wear limits and repair procedures, on its Web site (www.extex.com). Extex is the first company of its kind to do so. The reasons behind this move are several. First, making these materials available on the Web streamlines the flow of information to the customer. As Extex said in a statement, “Customers are notified immediately via e-mail or fax
of any changes. From there they can go to the Web, review the update and download the change if and when they need it. Updates are both immediate and free of charge.”

The other reason Extex is making manuals available is Extex president and CEO Larry Shiembob’s ongoing feud with Rolls-Royce over what he feels are that company’s exorbitant charges for printed repair manuals and revisions, for which that company charges more than $8,000 for each of its 10 model variants (a total of $80,000 for all of them), with mandatory revisions amounting to another $6,000 annually (or a total of $60,000 for all 10 models).

When queried over the price of Rolls-Royce 250 manuals some months ago in AIN, a company spokesman responded that rising paper costs had prompted the engine maker’s 800-percent price increase.