GPMS International: Gaining the power of Foresight

This sponsored article was ready by Perception journal, the sponsored content material division of MHM Publishing, on behalf of GPMS Worldwide.

The idea is easy. The answer is elegant. And the advantages are big.

The concept of monitoring a helicopter’s dynamic elements to find out the operational well being of an plane has been round for many years.

However the complexity, excessive value and weight of early-generation well being and utilization monitoring techniques (HUMS) restricted its use to giant navy and business helicopters.

That modified when Foresight MX, an all-in-one HUMS resolution, was launched by GPMS Worldwide, a Waterbury, Vermont-based firm.

Leveraging technological advances in computing energy, new algorithms, and the cloud, GPMS created a next-generation HUMS that gives an unprecedented depth of operational data paired with an easy-to-use expertise.

“It’s monitoring all of the dynamic elements — the gearboxes, engines, bearings, drive shafts — mainly, if something strikes within the plane, we are able to measure it,” mentioned Ronnie Ries, vice chairman of promoting for GPMS.

Using an on-board community of “sensible” microprocessor sensors, the Foresight set up is over 50 p.c lighter, extra correct, and with the “HUMS as a Service” mannequin, extra accessible than legacy HUMS options.

From the primary supplemental kind certificates (STC) granted for the Bell 407 in 2018, GPMS has continued to increase the checklist of permitted installations that now consists of a variety of varieties and authentic tools producers (OEMs) — from gentle MD 530F and Airbus AS350/H125 collection, by way of to Bell 212/412 medium helicopters, and proper as much as Sikorsky UH-60 and Boeing CH-47 heavy plane.

“When a buyer decides to outfit their fleet with HUMS, they sometimes don’t simply function one kind from one OEM. The flexibility to put in a single frequent licensed resolution throughout a blended fleet is massively useful for effectivity,” Ries mentioned. “One of many issues we’re most pleased with is how easy Foresight is to make use of. We’ve designed an intuitive person expertise that may be accessed from anyplace on the earth on any web-enabled system.”

With out the necessity for a pilot to work together with the system, knowledge is sampled from the system at as much as eight occasions per second from plane startup to shutdown. As soon as a mission is full, Foresight robotically uploads the information to the cloud by way of a mobile connection.

Along with displaying the standing of a helicopter’s elements — simply interpreted on the diagnostic dashboard with color-coded indicators — GPMS has designed Foresight to investigate knowledge traits to supply an evaluation of the expected remaining helpful life (RUL) of a part. “Let’s say, we’ve simply detected that primarily based on 50 hours of information, a bearing is trending towards the warning line,” Ries defined. “From that knowledge evaluation, we are able to inform the operator that the expected remaining helpful lifetime of the bearing is about 70 hours. That predictive nature permits the client to show potential unscheduled upkeep and downtime into scheduled upkeep. The flexibility to forecast the necessity for components then turns into streamlined, hopefully lowering the impression of components shortages and provide chain points.”

And when Foresight alerts a problem with a part, it will possibly simplify the troubleshooting course of, giving upkeep engineers further perception that may pace up a helicopter’s return to service.

Foresight additionally options built-in flight knowledge monitoring, capturing over 60 totally different flight parameters. Mission knowledge will be considered utilizing Foresight’s flight visualization instrument, downloaded, or transferred through API for additional evaluation.

This component of Foresight brings complete flight operations high quality assurance (FOQA) to an operator by combining flight knowledge monitoring with HUMS mechanical diagnostics and detailed exceedance documentation.

“If the HUMS system tells you the way wholesome your plane is, the flight knowledge monitoring tells you the way ‘wholesome’ your pilots are flying,” Ries mentioned. “The system may also ship proactive alerts of any exceedances by textual content message or e-mail.”

The intensive dynamic part dataset constantly captured by Foresight drives a characteristic that prospects have discovered offers a right away return on their funding — the method of rotor monitor and stability (RTB) optimization.

“Usually, while you’re getting a variety of vibration within the cabin, it’s since you’re out of stability, so that you convey within the mechanics while you land,” Ries mentioned. “They put costly tools on, and the pilot goes out on a check flight. They land, the mechanics make an adjustment, then one other check flight, after which possibly extra changes and extra check flights. It could possibly take anyplace from a number of hours to a number of days to get it performed.”

With Foresight’s analytics and proposals, “each time  you land, not solely have you learnt precisely how in stability you’re, however you’ll see what changes to make to scale back vibration and enhance RTB. It could possibly dramatically cut back the variety of check flights, and price.”

For a few years, bringing a cheap, highly effective, and light-weight HUMS to all helicopter operators has been the main target of Eric Bechhoefer, CEO, co-founder, and chief engineer of GPMS.

Recognizing the event of Foresight MX and his years of management in increasing using HUMS, the Helicopter Affiliation Worldwide offered Bechhoefer with the 2023 Salute to Excellence Award for Security.

“GPMS’s trade main data, expertise, and expertise have produced essentially the most superior HUMS resolution obtainable,” Ries mentioned. “With Foresight, you possibly can realize it earlier than it issues.”

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