Welcome - MALMS Benefits

By continuing to employ traditional AGL maintenance practices, airport operators face:

Increased Risk - Airports are not only likely to regularly have 'unserviceable' AGL systems but are unlikely to be able to determine or demonstrate the true performance of their system at any given time and run the risk of impaired operational performance . No airport can afford to take any safety issue lightly, or avoid showing commitment to all safety factors.

Reduced Peace of Mind - By not following recognised "best practice", this could, as with any other industries, leave a company open to question should any operational or safety issues arise.

Higher Costs - The poor management of the AGL Life Cycle - design, installation, maintenance and refurbishment   - significantly increases the system's life cycle costs, and this is an unnecessary drain on an airports finances. More specifically, as well as being ineffective, existing maintenance practices are expensive in terms of revenue, often requiring excessive expenditure on labour and materials, and capital expense, with more lights being replaced more frequently. There is also the potential cost involved in the increased runway time required for maintenance activities.

By adopting a maintenance solution from TMS Photometrics, airports operator gain:

Established Best Practice - TMS Photometrics' MALMS technology, Differential Maintenance strategy, and a range of installation services, have been specifically developed, through years of research and experience, in response to the recognition by the ICAO, UK CAA and FAA that new strategies are vital if airports are to maintain the serviceability levels that comply with the new performance regulations.

System Confidence - Differential Maintenance, when properly implemented, is proven in its ability to enable airports to fully comply with the recommendations of all regulatory authorities both in terms of maintenance practice, and AGL serviceability levels, thus ensuring safety standards are maintained. Should the quality of the lighting system be called into question due to a landing, or taxiing incident, airports also have the significant advantage of having fully documented evidence of compliance.

Improved Performance

• Maintaining System Serviceability - At one international airport, where biennial block change had been the policy, within four weeks of implementing Differential Maintenance, however, the centreline serviceability level had been raised from 50% to 85%. After 6 months was consistently meeting the 95% serviceability standard established by ICAO. Moreover, this was achieved without any increase in maintenance costs.
• Confirm RVR Values - RVR (Runway Visual Range) is normally calculated from measured visibility, assumed light intensity and other factors. MALMS can confirm that the assumed light intensity is maintained and thus the quoted RVR values are valid.
• Rapid Problem Identification - Occasionally, such as following construction work or the application of ant-icing fluid, performance of the complete runway may be significantly degraded. MALMS provides a fast and easy way to establish the extent that performance has been affected by such activities, and cleaning priorities.
• Prioritise Maintenance Work - Often an airport's maintenance resources do not match the workload. MALMS and Differential Maintenance can help prioritise work such that it can be scheduled efficiently.
• Minimise Runway Time - At many airports access time on runway for maintenance work is very restricted. MALMS offers a fast measure collection process, with the speed normally limited only by driving quality, and with speeds in excess of 65 km/h being practical. The Differential Maintenance approach also minimises runway access requirements, and it can significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the disturbances cause by re-fitting large sections of a system.
• Monitor Maintenance - MALMS provides a detailed Isocandela Diagram of every fitting on each survey run, which can be used to monitor maintenance work; a task that has traditionally proved difficult to achieve.
• Effective Commissioning Tests - Undertaking a detailed survey of system performance at its installation and commissioning is impractical with existing techniques. However, MALMS quickly measures both beam intensity and orientation, so that correct installation and alignment can be confirmed.

Reduced Whole life Costs
Differential Maintenance is now enabling airports world-wide to more effectively deploy manpower and material resources, so enabling standards to be maintained with minimum effort. This can, as has been proved, lead to a reduction in real term revenue spending. Also, through more effective maintenance, the life span of the AGL system can be extended, and this will mean reduced capital outlay.

In the not to distant future, the demonstration of continuous satisfactory AGL performance, as provided by MALMS, could form part of a proposal to reduce the number of lights. It is also possible that the measured photometric performance may be used to determine the primary series circuit current settings, rather than the fixed settings specified at CAP168, thus giving potential energy and lamp-life savings. For a 6.6A system, a decrease of 100mA at maximum setting can give around a 50% increase in lamp-life.