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Within the aviation industry analysis of wear debris particles recovered from magnetic plugs and lubricating fluids is an essential condition monitoring tool. However, in large organisations, high staff turnover in remote work environments often leaves dangerous gaps in on-site support and background knowledge. The current work develops interactive software for wear debris particle classification, root cause diagnosis and serviceability prognostics. During the research several hundred wear debris particle images were collected, analysed and classified by a number of experts. At each stage of the analysis the experts were questioned about the knowledge and experience used to make their diagnoses and prognoses. The end result is an extensive knowledge base representing the combined expertise of a number of highly trained engineers, each with decades of hands-on experience.

The need to maintain aircraft in remote, harsh environments poses significant challenges. For example, in desert assignments or on-board carrier vessels where frequent rotation of staff with variable levels of skill and experience requires condition monitoring equipment that is not only robust and portable but also user friendly and requiring a minimum of training and skill to set up and use correctly. The mainstays of any on-site aircraft maintenance program are various fluid and particulate condition monitoring tests that convey information about the current mechanical state of the system. In the front line of these is the collection and analysis of wear debris particles retrieved from a component’s lubricating or power transmission fluid or from magnetic plugs. It is standard practice within the specialist laboratory environment to view and image wear debris using a microscope. However, it is not possible to view both macroscopic and microscopic particles at the same magnification.