WIDAS 2.0

The goal of WIDAS is to support improved aircraft wiring reliability, availability and productivity, with a resultant reduction in maintenance cost per unit life cycle. WIDAS can be utilized to support extended operating cycles, extended life programs and preventative maintenance practices. It may also be used to support revised maintenance strategies in the face of budget or other resource constraints.

On July 23, 2009, Lectromec has announced the release of WIDAS 2.0. This system, which has been in development for the last three years, integrates the knowledge gathered from over 20 years of wire assessment. This, combined with new statistical analysis techniques makes WIDAS 2.0 analysis leaps and bounds more robust than its predecessor.

While WIDAS was did provide a much needed aircraft wire health assessment, there were some areas in which the system was lacking. These areas received particular attention during the research and development effort.

The statistical analysis was developed by Lectromec for the explicit purpose of wire degradation analysis. The statistical analysis is based on literally thousands of tests with various wire constructions. Not only does this define the current state of the aircraft wire system, but provides a significant improvement in the accuracy of the future life and risk of wire failure.

Improvement of WIDAS 2.0 include:

  • Increase accuracy of current wire state
  • Increased accuracy of projected life
  • Improved sampling algorithms
  • Clearer and more robust description of analysis results
  • Quicker turnaround time

While Lectromec's particular attention has been on aircraft wiring in this development of WIDAS 2.0, the analysis can be extended to other platforms including fixed instillations as well as land and sea system.

WIDAS

WIDAS (Wire Insulation Deterioration Analysis System) is a predictive technology sampling system used to measure the service life remaining of the wire on an active aircraft or fleet. WIDAS combines engineering knowledge of aircraft wiring with selective specimen sampling, accelerated aging of wire specimens in a controlled environment and expert analysis of test results. These are used to produce a report on the condition of the aircraft wiring. The system is designed to measure the amount of wire insulation deterioration caused by the environmental factors of temperature, moisture and strain. Selective sampling and testing will result in a high confidence estimate of the condition of the wire insulation for an entire aircraft or fleet.

The Need

WIDAS determines how critical the wire replacement or wire maintenance need is BEFORE failure occurs. This allows aircraft maintenance personnel to identify, prioritize and replace selected aircraft wiring (harnesses, bundles, etc.) before the occurrence of such events as unscheduled maintenance, costly extended delays or a wiring incident. WIDAS gives the operator the ability to better allocate manpower and financial resources as well as improve efficiently. WIDAS, alone or in combination with Inherent Viscosity testing, can be an excellent means to make better informed decisions regarding planning maintenance activity, rewire actions or periodic maintenance.

Additional benefits of implementing WIDAS into your program include:

  • improved safety of flight
  • improved aircraft readiness
  • reduced frequency and severity of aircraft wire malfunctions and arcing incidents
  • reduced reports of smoke in the cockpit and cabin
  • reduced unscheduled maintenance events
  • Fewer "dry run" LRU replacements
  • organized planning and scheduling for aircraft wire replacement programs
  • improved maintainability and logistic support
  • reduced mission aborts and non-mission capable flights

WIDAS can also be modified to accommodate the forced hydrolysis needs of wire manufacturers. Contact Lectromec for further information.