 Extending the life of powerpacks and reducing secondary damage are just two of the benefits the British Army is receiving from Machine Care Plus®.
Challenger 2 is one of the world’s most advanced Main Battle Tanks, and since 1999 the British Army has been making full use of Machine Care Plus® to assess the health of powerpacks across their fleet.
Machine Care Plus® identifies engines and transmissions showing signs of distress and alerts British Army and UK Ministry of Defence staff when action is required. Damage to internal components can thus be minimised, resulting in more economical repairs, or avoided altogether, leading to longer life. As well as a reduction in support costs, AES’s Condition Based Asset Management service is also helping to improve the availability of these critical assets.
"We are now running transmissions far beyond the life that we were used to".
A body of evidence is also being accumulated at AES’s Early Failure Detection Centre, which identifies failure patterns. In turn, this is leading to product specification improvements, clearly demonstrating the value of the long-term partnership between AES and the UK Ministry of Defence.
As Col Tony Morris explained in a recent interview,
"AES’s Machine Care Plus® service gives our armoured fighting vehicle operators the ability and confidence to plan and choose when they carry out maintenance. We are now running transmissions far beyond the life that we were used to".
Col Morris is a senior officer with the British Army and until October 2000 was the Integrated Project Team Leader, Tank Systems Support. Machine Care Plus® combines the power of the unique Phocus® software with the expertise of AES’s Technical Service Engineers, who are ex-military personnel with direct previous experience with the customers they now serve. It is this combination of detailed understanding and powerful technology that makes Machine Care Plus® so valuable.
| |
