Plant maintenance method and apparatus
First Claim
1. An apparatus for maintaining plant equipment comprising:
- an input unit configured to receive information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
a failure-event tree breakdown unit configured to perform tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from a failure-events to be inspected, in order to obtain a failure-event tree;
a failure-unreliability function calculation unit configured to calculate unreliability of a resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to a causal event in the failure-event tree preceding the resultant event;
a failure-derived monetary loss calculation unit configured to multiply each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost;
a preventive-maintenance expense calculation unit configured to calculate preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
a maintenance decision-making unit configured to decide maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for maintaining plant equipment incorporates: an input unit to receive information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information; a failure-event tree breakdown unit to perform tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from events to be inspected; a failure-unreliability function calculation unit to calculate unreliability of each item in the failure-event tree breakdown; a failure-derived monetary loss calculation unit to multiply each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost; a preventive maintenance expense calculation unit to calculate preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and a maintenance decision-making unit to decide maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses. The apparatus may further have an inspection-priority item selection unit to select priority items in a failure-event tree stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be inspected and an inspection unit to inspect the selected items, or a monitoring-item selection unit to select priority items in a failure-event tree stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be inspected and an on-line monitoring unit to monitor the selected items.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus for maintaining plant equipment comprising:
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an input unit configured to receive information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
a failure-event tree breakdown unit configured to perform tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from a failure-events to be inspected, in order to obtain a failure-event tree;
a failure-unreliability function calculation unit configured to calculate unreliability of a resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to a causal event in the failure-event tree preceding the resultant event;
a failure-derived monetary loss calculation unit configured to multiply each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost;
a preventive-maintenance expense calculation unit configured to calculate preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
a maintenance decision-making unit configured to decide maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An apparatus for maintaining plant equipment comprising:
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an input unit configured to receive information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
an inspection-priority item selection unit configured to select a priority item, which relates to a failure event in a failure-event tree and is stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be inspected;
an inspection unit configured to inspect the selected items;
a failure-event tree breakdown unit configured to perform tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from a failure-events to be inspected, in order to obtain a failure-event tree;
a failure-unreliability function calculation unit configured to calculate unreliability of a resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to a causal event in the failure-event tree preceding the resultant event;
a failure-derived monetary loss calculation unit configured to multiply each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost;
a preventive-maintenance expense calculation unit configured to calculate preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
a maintenance decision-making unit configured to decide maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus for maintaining plant equipment comprising:
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an input unit configured to receive information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
a monitoring-item selection unit configured to select a priority item, which relates to a failure event in a failure-event tree and is stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be monitored;
an on-line monitoring unit configured to monitor the selected items;
a failure-event tree breakdown unit configured to perform tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from a failure-events to be inspected, in order to obtain a failure-event tree;
a failure-unreliability function calculation unit configured to calculate unreliability of a resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to a causal event in the failure-event tree preceding-the resultant event;
a failure-derived monetary loss calculation unit configured to multiply each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost;
a preventive-maintenance expense calculation unit configured to calculate preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
a maintenance decision-making unit configured to decide maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of maintaining plant equipment comprising the steps of:
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receiving information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
performing tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from events to be inspected, thereby obtaining a failure-event tree;
calculating unreliability of every resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to corresponding causal event in the failure event tree;
multiplying each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulating results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown thereby obtaining a recovery cost;
calculating preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
deciding maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses.
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21. A method of maintaining plant equipment comprising the steps of:
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receiving information on plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
selecting a priority item, which relates to a event in a failure-event tree and is stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be inspected;
inspecting the selected item;
performing tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from events to be inspected, thereby obtaining a failure-event tree;
calculating unreliability of every resultant event in the failure-event tree with respect to corresponding causal event in the failure event tree;
multiplying each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulating results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thereby obtaining a recovery cost;
calculating preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
deciding maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses.
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22. A method of maintaining plant equipment comprising the steps of:
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receiving information on targets and ranges of plant equipment to be maintained, that constitute a plant, inspection information and operation-history information;
selecting a priority item, which relates to a event in a failure-event tree and is stored in a failure-event tree database, as items to be monitored;
monitoring the selected items;
performing tree-breakdown on failures to be expected from events to be inspected;
calculating unreliability of each item in the failure-event tree breakdown;
multiplying each unreliability and a cost of recovery from each event to be inspected and accumulate results of multiplication in accordance with the failure-event tree breakdown, thus obtaining a recovery cost;
calculating preventive maintenance expenses for preventing failure events; and
deciding maintenance timing and technique through comparison between the recovery cost and the preventive maintenance expenses.
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23. A method of maintaining plant equipment comprising the steps of:
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transmitting, over a network, data from inspection and monitoring units for equipment that constitute each of a plurality of plants, each plant having a plurality of units;
processing the transmitted data through failure-event tree breakdown, failure-unreliability function calculation, failure-derived monetary loss calculation, failure-derived monetary loss calculation and preventive-maintenance expense calculation; and
storing the processed data in a failure-event tree database and a failure-unreliability function database for learning, for accurate failure-unreliability function calculation in maintenance decision making; and
transmitting results of maintenance decision making to the plants.
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Specification