A Closer Look: Lubricant, Fuels and Other Fluids are Critical to the Aviation Industry

Lubricants and fuels help ensure that engines and other systems operate smoothly, but they must be monitored.

06 May 2014

In the world's aviation industry, timing is crucial. When a jet engine or other components fail or need unplanned repairs, the risk to passenger safety grows, significant costs, scheduling delays, and customer frustrations can quickly mount. Lubricants, fuels, and other fluids play a key role in ensuring that engines and other systems operate smoothly and without damage, but they must be monitored to ensure they are replaced before they fail, which can cause bigger problems very quickly.

To protect aviation customers from these potential problems, fluid monitoring and preventative maintenance programs can help manufacturers reduce overall costs and increase reliability. But what and how do these types of programs offer solutions to the aviation industry?

Many programs for the aviation industry, specifically when involving the testing of fuels, lubricants and debris/filter samples, might only offer one or two of these requirements. However, for operators, maintainers or manufacturers looking to work with a third-party, it's important to consider all aspects of an aircraft's analysis requirements. From there, find a third-party that can meet these needs including:

• Identification of potential component failures before they occur, helping reduce unscheduled maintenance to a minimum.
• Providing of test reports offering trending information and fully interpreted results, with easy to understand summaries and recommendations.
• Providing component 'mode of failure' analysis when the need arises.

What questions do you have regarding this topic? Please leave your comments below and one of our experts will get back to you.

Today's expert blogger is Robert Chapman, Global Lead Oil Condition Monitoring at Intertek. Robert has been with Intertek for three years and is based in the Farnborough office in the United Kingdom.

Tags: 2014 | Oil and Gas | Robert Chapman