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US 10,496,787 B2Granted
System and method of rotorcraft usage monitoring
AssigneeBell Helicopter Textron Inc.
InventorsBrian Tucker, Tom Wood, Robert Wardlaw, Bang Nguyen, Allen Altman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of monitoring usage of a component of an aircraft can include: monitoring a usage of the component by using a torque measurement system to calculate torque events in a time period; categorizing the usage of the component by assigning a usage value based upon whether the number of torque events in the period of time is above or below a threshold; and determining a life used of the component.
Claims19
A method of monitoring usage of a component of an aircraft, the method comprising:
- monitoring a usage of the component by using a torque measurement system to calculate torque events over a time period;
- categorizing the usage of the component by assigning a usage value based upon whether a number of torque events in the time period is above or below a threshold;
- and
- determining a life used of the component;
- wherein the categorizing comprises counting flight hours and low cycle events that occur within an averaging period that spans between a start time and an end time and calculating a usage ratio for the averaging period;
- and
- wherein the end time is when a user accesses a usage log on a display.
4 more elements
A system for monitoring a usage of a component of an aircraft, the system comprising:
- a torque monitoring system configured to measure torque events over a time period;
- and
- a computer processor operable to categorize the usage of the component by assigning a usage value by calculating a usage ratio of the torque events to the time period and comparing the ratio to a threshold, the computer processor further operable to determine a life used of the component by adjusting a measured flight time by multiplying the measured flight time by a factor that is dependent upon the usage value, wherein the categorizing comprises counting flight hours and low cycle events that occur within an averaging period that spans between a start time and an end time and calculating the usage ratio for the averaging period and wherein the end time is when a user accesses a usage log on a display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.