Equipment component monitoring and replacement management system
First Claim
1. A system for managing replaceable components for equipment having a plurality of components, each with a limited useful life, comprising:
- a computer with at least one processor;
a computer program module for defining a duty profile comprising a plurality of usage cases for the equipment, each usage case involving two or more of the plurality of components and specified operating conditions assumed to be experienced by the involved components during the execution of each of the usage cases;
a computer program module for determining a theoretical useful life for each component involved in a duty profile, said theoretical useful life being based on component wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions;
sensors for determining and monitoring the occurrence of equipment operation corresponding to a usage case and making measurements of actual operating conditions experienced in the operation;
a memory for storing the measurements of actual operating conditions for the plurality of components; and
a computer program module for computing an adjusted theoretical useful life for a component after it has experienced one or more operations, by;
responsive to the measurements of actual operating conditions, calculating one or more calculated wear/stress/strain parameters for each operation and accumulating these calculated parameters for such component; and
based on a comparison of the accumulated, calculated wear/stress/strain parameters from actual operating conditions to accumulated wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions in the determination of a theoretical useful life, determining the amount of the adjusted theoretical useful life consumed in the one or more operations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for managing replacement components for equipment having a plurality of components each with a limited useful life has a computer with a processor. The system includes a computer program module for defining a duty profile comprising a plurality of usage cases for the equipment, each usage case involving two or more of the plurality of components and specified operating conditions assumed to be experienced by the involved components during the execution of each of the usage cases. There are also a computer program module for determining a theoretical useful life for each component involved in a duty profile, the theoretical useful life being based on component useful life data under the specified operating conditions; and sensors for determining and monitoring the occurrence of equipment operation corresponding to a usage case and measuring the actual operating conditions experienced in the operation and the number of such operations. A further computer program module computes an adjusted theoretical useful life for a component that has experienced one or more operations, based on a comparison of actual operating conditions to operating conditions assumed to be experienced in the operation of the usage case.
142 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A system for managing replaceable components for equipment having a plurality of components, each with a limited useful life, comprising:
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a computer with at least one processor;
a computer program module for defining a duty profile comprising a plurality of usage cases for the equipment, each usage case involving two or more of the plurality of components and specified operating conditions assumed to be experienced by the involved components during the execution of each of the usage cases;
a computer program module for determining a theoretical useful life for each component involved in a duty profile, said theoretical useful life being based on component wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions;
sensors for determining and monitoring the occurrence of equipment operation corresponding to a usage case and making measurements of actual operating conditions experienced in the operation;
a memory for storing the measurements of actual operating conditions for the plurality of components; and
a computer program module for computing an adjusted theoretical useful life for a component after it has experienced one or more operations, by;
responsive to the measurements of actual operating conditions, calculating one or more calculated wear/stress/strain parameters for each operation and accumulating these calculated parameters for such component; and
based on a comparison of the accumulated, calculated wear/stress/strain parameters from actual operating conditions to accumulated wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions in the determination of a theoretical useful life, determining the amount of the adjusted theoretical useful life consumed in the one or more operations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-based method for managing replaceable components for equipment having a plurality of components, each with a limited useful life, comprising:
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controlling a computer program module for defining a duty profile comprising a plurality of usage cases for the equipment, each usage case involving two or more of the plurality of components and specified operating conditions assumed to be experienced by the involved components during the execution of each of the usage cases;
controlling a computer program module for determining a theoretical useful life for each component involved in a duty profile, said theoretical useful life being based on component wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions;
receiving data from sensors for determining and monitoring the occurrence of equipment operation corresponding to a usage case and for making measurements of actual operating conditions experienced in the operation;
storing in a memory the measurements of actual operating conditions for the plurality of components; and
controlling a computer program module for computing an adjusted theoretical useful life for a component after it has experienced one or more operations, by;
responsive to the measurements of actual operating conditions, calculating one or more calculated wear/stress/strain parameters for each operation and accumulating these calculated parameters for such component; and
based on a comparison of the accumulated, calculated wear/stress/strain parameters from actual operating conditions to accumulated wear/stress/strain parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions in the determination of a theoretical useful life, determining the amount of the adjusted theoretical useful life consumed in the one or more operations. - View Dependent Claims (12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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13. The method of claim 111 wherein the step of controlling a computer program module for defining a duty profile comprises controlling a module that assumes a specified number of operations and the step of controlling a computer program module for computing an adjusted theoretical useful life comprises tracking the number of operations in which a replaceable component is involved.
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16. The method of claim 111 further comprising controlling a computer program module responsive to the adjusted theoretical useful life for signaling a scheduled replacement need when the amount of the theoretical useful life consumed is within a replacement range of the adjusted theoretical useful life.
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21. A method for monitoring of the condition of remote equipment having at least one wear component, said at least one wear component having a useful life dependent on the operating conditions the at least one wear component experiences, comprising:
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defining two or more raw data measurements that vary as the equipment is used under different operating conditions;
controlling a software component for receiving data from sensors cooperating with the equipment to sense operating conditions and to produce the two or more raw data measurements and for transmitting said sensor data to a central monitoring processor;
controlling a software component at the central monitoring processor for parsing the sensor data into the two or more raw data measurements for post processing;
controlling a post processing software component for calculating from the two or more raw data measurements at least one calculated wear parameter for the at least one wear component, the value of the wear parameter being weighted by values of the two or more raw data measurements used in its calculation;
controlling a software component for collecting a time sequence of the values of the at least one calculated wear parameter for the at least one wear component and from the time sequence of values calculating an accumulated wear value over the usage of the at least one wear component; and
controlling a software component for evaluating the accumulated wear value against a maximum wear rating for the at least one wear component and responsive thereto providing a useful life operations notice. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A data structure used for monitoring of the condition of remote equipment having at least one wear component, comprising:
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definitions of raw data measurements to be taken from operation of the at least one wear component;
correspondence data between raw data measurements and specified calculated wear parameters for the at least one wear component to which the raw data measurements belong; and
calculation rules for post processing of the raw data measurements to produce the specified calculated wear parameters for the at least one wear component. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47)
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Specification