Air Transport

Boeing and General Electric have joined forces to simplify aircraft condition-based maintenance systems.

The manufacturers say the open system architecture for condition-based maintenance (OSA-CBM) should become an industry standard after they signed an agreement for the architecture's use by the machinery information management open systems alliance organisation.

Explaining the logic of OSA-CBM, GE and Boeing say project managers using condition-based maintenance systems are required to integrate a variety of software and hardware components, each one developed to monitor a single supplier's system such as engines or hydraulics.

OSA-CBM "simplifies this process" by specifying "a standard architecture and framework" for condition-based systems, the partners say.

In December 2008 laboratory testing validated the specification in both embedded and PC environments, across multiple computer operating systems. The aim of the new architecture is to use real-time data to optimise maintenance resources to reduce spare parts costs, system downtime and time spent on maintenance.