The aviation industry certainly remains popular throughout the United States. In fact, estimates from the FAA show that there are nearly 10 million jobs throughout the United States each year. Considering that, an important aspect of the aviation industry are aircraft maintenance workers. These workers help ensure all parts of an aircraft remain safe, especially fans. In this post, you’ll learn how these workers keep aircraft fans safe.
Causes of Improper Fan Balance Issues
You won’t have to worry about fan issues while these items are new. That being said, there are many ways these fans can slightly change their shape. It’s important to remain aware of any problems with your fans and turbines. Fan balance can also be affected by general repairs. For instance, improperly installed or slightly uneven replacement blades sometimes causes additional damage.
Correcting Fan Balance Problems
If fans and turbines don’t have proper balance, you’ll be dealing with aircraft vibration. The severity of aircraft vibration is usually measured in terms of inches per second. This scale typically ranges from 0 to 1.2. It’s preferable that an aircraft scores on the lower range of these numbers. Higher IPS measurements are deemed either rough, very rough, or dangerous.
It’s important to have this problem taken care of. Fortunately, you can do this by utilizing vibration balancing equipment. Utilizing a vibration analyzer will help ensure you know exactly which blades are causing problems. After the vibration analysis is performed, you can have the problematic blades taken care of. You’ll typically only need to choose whether to have fans repaired or replaced. Fans with fewer amounts of damage might be repairable. On the other hands, fans receiving too much damage might need to be entirely replaced.
In closing, it’s important to ensure that aircraft fans and turbines remain in optimal condition. A study from 2011 found that there were nearly 224,475 aviation craft active within the United States. Considering that, it’s imperative that the fans and turbines of these craft function properly. If you’re noticing that IPS measurements are increasing, it’s time to perform a vibration analysis. This helpful process helps to ensure that any potential fan or turbine issues are found and corrected.
