Extending Interactive Electronic Maintenance Manual with Web3D Technologies

Rapid developments in Information and Communication Technology have revealed a number of opportunities for supporting a complete product life cycle of the mechanical facilities particularly for maintenance purposes. The complexity of mechanical procedures as well as their perceptions has challenged engineers to create more effective and interactive maintenance manual. Therefore, this paper proposes an advanced electronic maintenance manual with the interactive 3D visualization by using the latest Web3D technologies. The advantage of this method is the visual and three dimensional explanations delivered in the maintenance manuals. This method will extend the traditional work instructions into an interactive electronic maintenance manual. The manual module which involves Cortona3D software is processed by preparation of 3D CAD data format from mechanical facilities. Then this process continues with the addition 3D animation with related texts through the maintenance operations, and converting the modified 3D data into VRML format which enables accessible through Web. The result is an interactive and on-demand electronic maintenance manual which allows users to communicate maintenance problems. The assessment concludes that the 3D maintenance manual will improve an intuitive interface and information retention, encourage visual knowledge and minimize ambiguity.