Jet engine failure can be a very hazardous event, regardless if it is on a commercial or military plane. Preventative steps must be taken to ensure the safest, functional products are produced, and regular maintenance intervals must be implemented to ensure functionality.
Whether in the Air Force or at the local airline, preventative maintenance for jet engines is crucial for safety. Clearing the engines of any foreign particles minimizes the risk for failure due to engine blade breakage. Exterior particles as small as hailstones have been known to cause engine failure, breaking the engine blades and causing them to slice thru cables, hydraulic lines, and other vital parts of the plane. Product cleanliness, routine maintenance, and quick analytical capabilities help ensure the high standards are being met.
One of the necessary steps to preventive maintenance includes the removal of all particle contamination from the engine. Quality control starting at the factory is crucial for the cleanliness of the materials constructing of the engines. Manufacturers are striving to provide clean steel, minimizing the foreign particles and balancing the composition to achieve the highest quality materials. Using technology like the Aspex Personal Scanning Electron Microscope (PSEM) with Advanced Quality Control (AQC) software, manufacturers are eliminating much of the unwanted particles that could result in mechanical failure.
Just as the original manufacturers strive to produce quality parts, the operators strive to maintain these parts in top running order. Routine inspection of each engine is essential to employed to ensure the highest standards are adhered to and quality is maintained. In order to achieve these goals, ASPEX has developed the industry’s only totally integrated solution for the automated detection, identification, and characterization of micron-level debris in automotive manufacturing and cleansing operations.
The Jet Engine Mobile Monitor (JEMM), validated and tested by the United States Air Force, was designed with the military standards in mind yet can be adapted to other engines with ease. The automated analyzer can be set to check jet propulsion operations and engine wear, in order to provide a first-warning system of proactive maintenance. Compact and forklift ready, the PSEM Xtreme works where the problem is – on land or on sea. With a built-in anti-shock base and the multi-stage vibration isolation, the PSEM minimizes the outside interference of extreme environments to assess the problem at hand.
The Aspex PSEM with the JEMM software make jet engine monitoring and cleanliness, in the hanger or in the field, less daunting and more obtainable.
Reference:
Aspex, http://www.aspexcorp.com/industries/defense.html; http://www.aspexcorp.com/industries/industrial-automation.html
Bnet, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5325/is_200011/ai_n21462274/
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine
