The Technology Used in the Maintenance of Typical Commercial Aircraft - Essay Example

A Report on Aircraft Maintenance This paper will critically analyse the technology used in the maintenance of typical commercial aircraft,and produces a report on the technology in use today and how changes in technology have altered the way typical commercial aircraft are maintained, and how changes may take place for maintenance in the future. This papers reviews the latest technology used for maintaining the aircraft and how maintenance has change to adopt the latest technology advances. Closing with the future of aircraft maintenance. INTRODUCTION: Aircraft Maintenance technology relates to the actions required to improve the airworthiness and the designed-in reliability of an aircraft and its systems, subsystems, and components throughout the life cycle of the aircraft. Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMT's) perform or supervise maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alteration of aircraft and aircraft systems in accordance with the provisions of Federal Aviation Regulations. As the aviation technology made it progress, it was necessary to bring in the maintenance of all the aircraft for it's prolong and safety use. From the time it started, aircraft maintenance has gone through series of changes. From basic to improvised and now the high-tech maintenance. As gradually the aircraft problem raised, maintenance also matured. The following context will discuss very briefly the journey of maintenance to the latest maintenance technology. Further paragraph will discuss how it has cooped with the latest technology and then the future of the aircraft maintenance. TECHNOLOGY USED TODAY: How to effectively improve the quality of the aircraft outfield maintenance management is a problem any management personnel seeking high profits in both developed and developing countries must be faced with, no matter what aircraft they maintain, military aircraft or civilian aircraft. Some of the several technologies used for aircraft maintenance are: On-board Diagnostics: The use of neural networks (NNs) to enhance onboard diagnostics and provide real-time damage detection for aircraft reconfiguration has been investigated. This research focus was a result of investigating new technologies to improve mission success and reduce life cycle/support cost resulting from a high percentage of cannot duplicate' and retest O.K.' maintenance actions occurring on some aircraft systems. Laboratory testing results have shown that future onboard diagnostics systems can use NNs to detect intermittent failure and false failure indications. The test instance featured an Ada-based NN running in an advanced vehicle management system computer (VMSC). Built In Test Equipment: The BITE is characterized primarily as a passive fault management and diagnosis built into airborne systems to support the maintenance process. Another technology use for aircraft maintenance, it functionality are Analysis of failure monitoring results, Reporting & Memorisation of failures, Management of tests. Central Maintenance Computer: The Central Maintenance Computer (CMC) for the 747-400 cockpit serves as a central collection hub for inter-system fault data sharing among aircraft monitoring systems, collecting and storing information on failed components and initiating component and system tests. Reliability Centered Management: RCM process described in the DOD/UAL report recognized three principal risks from equipment failures: threats to safety, to operations, and to the maintenance budget. Modern RCM gives threats to the environment a separate classification, though most forms manage them in the same way as threats to safety. RCM offers four principal options among the risk management strategies: on-condition maintenance tasks, scheduled restoration or discard maintenance tasks, failure-finding maintenance tasks, and one-time changes to the "system" (changes to hardware design, to operations, or to other things). After being created by the commercial aviation industry, RCM was adopted by the U.S. military (beginning in the mid-1970s) and by the U.S. commercial nuclear power industry (in the 1980s). It began to enter other commercial industries and fields in the early 1990s. There are many devices used for maintenance purpose such as 900AST system test, which quickly locates and analyzes avionics wiring problems resulting from moisture vibration and age. There is a TIMETRAC flight record management system, which creates journey logs and manage record for multiple aircrafts. ADAPTION TO CHANGE IN TECHNOGY: The need to be global, mobile and deployable applies just as much to aircraft maintenance capabilities as it does to the aircraft itself. And in recent years, the process of repairing and maintaining military aircraft has become dramatically more global, mobile and deployable thanks to portable maintenance aids (PMAs) and electronic technical manuals (ETMs). E-Tools: Maintenance technicians are not necessarily turning wrenches faster - the difference is that they are getting information much faster, thanks to e-tools. PMAs enable four basic capabilities: to open and close work orders; to order parts; to track parts through the system (thanks to automatic identification technology or AIT); and to access and view technical data. They also can be used to perform advanced diagnostics and interact with experts at remote locations. While desktop computers cannot be used at the flight line, PMAs can. These are mobile e-tools used at the point of maintenance, typically taking the form of a ruggedized laptop computer or a handheld device Electronic Data and Wireless Abilities: Thanks to advances in computing speed, storage, voice recognition, miniaturization and wireless communications throughout the Air Force - as well as in the other services - maintenance technical data is gradually being converted from paper into ETMs, and the use of manual documentation is gradually being converted to electronic means. Going hand-in-hand with that change is the growing use of PMAs.There are many other products as well, including DataTrak products, Sanders' Enhanced Diagnostic Aid (EDNA), the Walkabout Hammerhead, AMREL Rocky Patriot III ruggedized notebooks, Compaq & Palm handheld devices, and the Dolch NotePAC II. AGEING AIRCRAFT: A new and reliable method for identifying potentially dangerous cracks in aging aircraft has been developed. Using a vibration-based technique named the "Boundary Effect Evaluation Method (BEEM)" and a scanning laser vibrometer, P. Frank Pai, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the MU College of Engineering (2007). This can detect tiny cracks within various materials - including aluminum alloy and composite laminates, which are the two primary materials used to build airplanes. According to him the inspection can be done with the aircraft fully intact and for less money than the traditional method. With electrical voltage applied, the patches produce small vibrations. The laser vibrometer scans the structure at various uniformly distributed points, measuring vibration levels. . Some cargo and passenger airlines think that new rule that is of ageing aircraft should be stopped calling the proposed program to be' immature and incomplete'. The objections comes in the wake of a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation calling on FAA to require records reviews, aging aircraft inspections and supplemental inspections for certain parts. The services are trying to find new compounds, materials and processes to keep legacy aircraft flying as the older aircraft are being asked to fly more robust missions in extreme environments than they were originally intended, according to the head of the Navy's aging aircraft program. The traditional ultrasound method requires the structural component to be disassembled from the aircraft, placed in water for an ultrasound scan and then reassembled. The former method allows for inspection of the entire aircraft, especially critical sections near the fuel tank and wing and body junctions, while fully assembled. Aircraft electrical wiring: One wiring expert - Edward Block, a longtime wiring consultant who used to work for the Department of Defense - believes that 75 percent of the world's current commercial fleet are dangerous because they have defective wiring. He believes that it need to be tested and possibly replaced. Block also believes that several types of wiring insulation used on older and new commercial aircraft should be banned because they have been found to be flammable and explosive. It is important to test and certify wiring for use in commercial aircraft, require airlines to perform comprehensive intrusive inspections of the existing wiring on their planes. IT is important to examine the testing that has been done on the fleet to date, develop accurate service lives for wiring, communicate more regularly and effectively with its military and foreign counterparts to learn of their responses to defective wiring. Electrical wiring is coming has come under increased scrutiny as a major safety issue. Other key installations--such as hydraulics, flight controls and pressurization systems--are overhauled or replaced at specific intervals during an aircraft's service life. However, electrical wiring bundles buried within the airframe are inspected and repaired as required, but are not replaced. Although mechanical-type circuit breakers (CB) have long been used in Transport Category aircraft to isolate faulty circuits, these devices have changed little in the past 30 years. The CBs provide only basic over-current protection by using a bimetallic strip that trips and opens a faulty circuit if the current remains above a certain level for a specific time period. Arc faults in wiring, however, can occur for only milliseconds and reach temperatures as high as 6,000C. These events often are too short in duration to heat the bimetallic strip and cause the CB to trip. To more quickly isolate electrical faults, Eaton Aerospace has developed the Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI). By utilizing microelectronic circuitry embedded within a typical CB, the AFCI system monitors and analyzes current using algorithms that search for random fluctuations in a circuit's waveform. If the processor determines that an arc fault exists, a signal is sent to a circuit protection device that triggers a sequence isolating the faulty circuit. A key advantage of the algorithms is the ability to discriminate between a bad'' fault and a good'' fault, such as a short to ground or the normal operation of a pump or motor, respectively. These mathematical equations are capable of identifying the degree of chaos'' and randomness'' in the 400Hz. waveform, which helps prevent nuisance tripping'' of circuit breakers caused by a sudden, high-current transient, said James M. McCormick (2001) FUTURE OF AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE: In the future, PMAs may be able to communicate directly with weapons systems. "Direct connections between PMAs and the equipment being repaired facilitate rapid analysis of system performance characteristics and allow faster transfer of critical information for ordering parts, reporting work performance, and receiving updated technical information," according to a report carried out by the McLean, VA-based Logistics Management Institute (LMI) on behalf of the Department of Defense. Non-destructive Testing (NDT) Services This area includes service companies that specialize in providing a variety of non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques such as visual inspection, ultrasonic or eddy current methods. NDT includes those test methods used to examine an object, material or system without impairing its future usefulness. Learn more about Non-destructive Testing (NDT) Services. There are other software introduced such as Maintenance software designed for aircraft operators, maintenance/repair/overhaul shops (MRO) and manufactures. They are user-friendly, cost effective and time effective paperless solution. There are other maintenance softwares such as PENTAGON 2000, MX software CORRIDOR etc. Web-Based Softwares: Flash turn is a web based online services request, which connects aircraft operator to FBOs World wide providing electronic reservations and confirmation for fuel and services request. Maintenex is a comprehensive web based maintenance and engineering system specifically designed to handle unique complexities of aviation maintenance/repair/overhaul (MRO). Mechanics can use a borescope to inspect the cables for proper routing, corrosion, or fraying. They can inspect hidden areas such as behind cabin walls. Some companies are even using borescopes to perform receiving inspections on parts. REFERENCES Anderson, R.J.; Aylward, S.R. Volume, Issue, 26-28 Jan 1993 Page(s): 404 - 410 Aviation Week & Space Technology.New York:April 2, 2001.Vol.154,Iss.14;pg.107, viewed19thmarch,http://proquest.umi.com/pqdwebdid=70552920&sid=4&Fmt=3&clientId=20928&RQT=309&VName=PQD Defense Daily.Potomac:Apr 24, 2006.Vol.230,Iss.16;pg.1, viewed 19th march , http://proquest.umi.com/pqdwebdid=1027166711&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=20928&RQT=309&VName=PQD Moubray, John. Reliability-Centered Maintenance. Indistrial Press. New York, NY. 1997. ISBN 0-8311-3146-2 US Fed News Service, Including US State News.Washington, D.C.:Jan 23, 2007, viewed 19th march,http://proquest.umi.com/pqdwebdid=1200931541&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=20928&RQT=309&VName=PQD. Read More