EWIS Risk Assessment for Service Life Extension Programs (SLEP)
Summary of Lectromec’s EWIS SLEP services
Decrease maintenance load, achieve compliance with requirements, and have a clear data-backed path for wiring system sustainment; these are achievable.
As evidence of this, Lectromec has prepared a case study detailing a segment of our process and how it helped a fleet avoid millions of dollars of unnecessary wiring system replacement.
Even in the best conditions, it is not possible to determine the condition of a wire system solely based on visual inspection. Lectromec can help you identify the true condition of your EWIS to support your service life extension program.
- With separate processes developed for commercial and military applications, Lectromec’s EWIS SLEP (service life extension programs) is a turn-key solution for determining EWIS reliability of aging platforms
- For military applications, Lectromec’s EWIS SLEP services cover all those identified in MIL-STD-1798 and MIL-HDBK-525 including EWIS degradation assessment
- For commercial/civil applications, Lectromec’s process is focused on delivering the information necessary to determine aircraft reliability
SLEP
In the course of planning for an airplane’s life extension program, eventually it becomes necessary to consider the wire system health. Like all other system components, wires (particularly the wire insulation) degrade over time and reduce the aircraft’s safety margins. Heat, mechanical strain, and fluids affect the wire insulation. In time, with exposure to these stresses, the wire can become more susceptible to failure (see Lectromec’s wire insulation degradation assessment technologies).
Here are several common reasons when you should consider making an EWIS evaluation part your life extension program:
- An increasing trend in the number of wire-related problems as evidenced by a review of maintenance records
- Nearing the end of the certified airplane life
- Operating in climates with elevated heat and/or humidity
- More than 15 years since the last major rewiring program
- A need to reduce the number of harnesses to be replaced at the next maintenance cycle
- A need to reduce the cost of harness replacement
- Concern that wire degradation led to the loss of another airplane in the fleet
Turn-Key EWIS SLEP Solution
Lectromec’s comprehensive “turn-key” EWIS risk assessment consists of combining the aircraft’s information with the physical assessment of EWIS components. Designed to conform to our customers’ existing requirements, Lectromec’s approach can be integrated into the service life extension process (defined in MIL-STD-1798) at any point and is aligned with the tasks identified in MIL-HDBK-525. An overview of this assessment process can be found in our free publication Addressing Fleet Management Needs With EWIS Risk Assessment Technologies (this document is a high level overview of the process Lectromec designed for the US Air Force EWIS service life extension handbook).
The uniquely valuable aspect of Lectromec’s EWIS risk assessment is that it provides a quantitative assessment of the probability of failure (using Lectromec’s 25 years of wire degradation research and experience) and failure severity. By combining these two assessments to define the system risk, a clear metric is provided to help develop a business justification for taking the necessary preventative actions.