Growth in Duncan Aviation’s MRO business has prompted an expansion of its in-house battery services business at its Lincoln, Nebraska location, the company announced this week. It has thus nearly doubled the size of its aircraft battery shop there to nearly 1,400 sq ft.

Along with the facility expansion, Duncan has added a new battery cooler and new advanced test sets, including 2,400-Watt programmable DC electronic load banks, lead-acid analyzers, and main NiCad charger analyzers. Bench space has also increased, as has the number of its technicians, which now total seven. That’s nearly double what Duncan had in Lincoln five years ago. The company handles 85 to 100 batteries a week in Lincoln, with an average of 75 percent of them checked, charged, and returned to customers within five days.

“When the Lincoln facility added two new maintenance hangars in 2014, the battery shop saw an increase in business from aircraft on site for maintenance,” team leader Brian Teeters said. Growth in Duncan’s battery service business has continued with the addition of its maintenance hangar in Provo, Utah, which accepted its first aircraft in early January. The Provo site includes a 251-sq-ft battery shop that has dedicated space for both lead acid and NiCad battery services, Duncan noted.