Condition Based Maintenance – Better way to maintain equipments

Condition based maintenance can be described as a maintenance system that is mainly done whenever the need of maintenance occurs. In this maintenance system all the equipments of US defense are analyzed and checked and if any fault or failure is found then they are repaired and maintained under this system. This maintenance system is mainly carried out by the maintenance personnel whenever they notice any indication of deterioration in the performance and working efficiency of the equipments of US army.
To maintain the equipments in appropriate condition at a given time frame gave birth to the Condition based maintenance or CBM. CBM ranks according to the priority and optimize recourses of the maintenance engaging concurrent data. It is based on a system that is known as condition based monitoring. This condition monitoring refers to the observation of the system so as to determine the condition of the equipments and act accordingly only when there is actual need of the maintenance. The personnel responsible for maintenance are able to judge better than ever to carry on the maintenance activity of any equipment when actually the equipment requires the maintenance. This is possible because of the recent development in the field of maintenance that has given chance for wide-spread instrumentation of tools, along with availability of better tools for examining the data related to the condition of the equipments. CBM truthfully allows the personnel responsible for maintenance to carry out correct measures to rectify the faults consequently reducing the downtime of the system along with the cost of the spare parts and minimizing the time required for maintenance.
Now let us come across with the pros and cons of Condition based maintenance.
Some of the Pros of CBM are:
1. CBM enhances the reliability of the system.
2. It helps to minimize the costs required for maintenance.
3. With the help of CBM number of operations conducted for maintenance is reduced thereby minimizing the influence of the human error.
Some of the Cons of CBM:
1. The installation costs of CMB is very high, if it is used to maintain small equipments then the cost of the installation will be more in comparison to the value of the equipment.
2. Costs are divided asymmetrically because of the unpredictability of periods of maintenance.
3. There are various parts of Condition based maintenance installation that urges checking and maintenance regularly.
However, in nutshell it can be said that though due to the high cost of CBM installation today it is not employed for any equipment parts that is less vital in spite of its inescapable advantages. But CBM will be used more extensively in the near future as it is catching fast in the system where safety and high reliability is necessary.
Gradually, Condition based maintenance is becoming the priority of US Army Aviation. It is a wise effort to use CBM for the weapon system. CBM for the military purposes is capable to offer several benefits.
condition based maintenance and condition based monitoring