Oil debris monitoring in aerospace engines and helicopter transmissions

Oil debris monitoring is one of the important elements of an engine condition monitoring system. It is the activity that detects impending failures of bearings, gears, splines and other oil wetted components. There are three traditional methods or devices that are in common use in aircraft gas turbine engines: spectrometric oil analysis (SOA), magnetic chip collectors (also called magnetic plugs or magnetic chip detectors) and electric chip detectors. The traditional methods are described in sufficient detail to provide an understanding of what is driving the need for advanced debris monitoring technologies.