Orlando, Fla. – October 12, 2010 – As military aircraft grow more complex, components are increasingly more interdependent making it more difficult to isolate causes for system faults. Component and system reliability continue to reduce individual failure frequencies, and fewer failures mean fewer opportunities to learn troubleshooting techniques and relate symptoms to failed components.
Troubleshooting has given way to a philosophy of changing parts until the problem goes away leading to many serviceable components being removed for no good reason.
StandardAero has developed the Maintenance Insight™ system to collect and analyze data thereby improving the maintenance of aviation engine accessories and airframe components through time cycle and history tracking, reliability-based workscoping and optimized maintenance practices. The result is increased aircraft availability and reduced operating costs.
“Aircraft operators are literally throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars of serviceable components annually, dollars they could be saving in maintenance costs,” said Dan Gonzales, Vice President, Government & Military Sector for StandardAero. “The Maintenance InsightTM system can significantly reduce life cycle costs through analysis of data and reliability workscoping.”
StandardAero engine reliability studies indicate that between 25 and 100 percent of engine accessories that are removed show No Fault Found (NFF) at test. Consequently, engine accessories account for 10 to 25 percent of engine maintenance cost. The Maintenance Insight™ solution reduces component life cycle cost through on-wing usage tracking and the application of reliability centered maintenance. The system uses small vibration activated monitors with energy harvester technology that convert vibration into power and tracks usage and cycles.
