Work machine maintenance system

• US 7,287,188 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2002
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Hiroshi, Shibata, Koichi, Sugiyama, Genroku, Adachi, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOHN, JOSHUA A
• Application Number:
  US10/488,407
• Publication Number:
  US 20040199831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,882 Days
• Field of Search: 714/21, 714/43
• US Class Current: 714/21
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user

Abstract

A maintenance system of a hydraulic excavator (11) is provided with a maintenance monitoring device (21), a maintenance management server (12) for managing trouble information and operating information for each working machine, a model information server (13), and a service personnel mobile terminal (14) connected to one another through the Internet (15). When trouble occurs in the hydraulic excavator, the maintenance system (21) transmits trouble information to the maintenance management server (12), and the maintenance management server (12) transmits information on occurrence of trouble to the mobile terminal (14) and displays it on a display unit. This system manages the maintenance manuals and other data for each model in a model information database separate from the maintenance database and correlates the two databases based on the model data.

Claims

1. A maintenance system of a working machine including at least one working machine provided with a maintenance monitoring device having a communicating means, a maintenance management server for managing trouble information and operating information of said working machine for each working machine, a model information server, and a service personnel mobile terminal, and being configured so as to connect said maintenance monitor device of said working machine, said maintenance management server, said model information server, and said mobile terminal through the internet,

wherein said maintenance monitor device of said working machine collects operating information and trouble information relating to said working machine, stores them in a storage unit, and transmits them through said communication means and the Internet to said maintenance management server,

said maintenance management server receives said operating information and said trouble information and stores said operating information and said trouble information for each working machine,

said model information server, which is independent from said maintenance management server and is managed by a manufacturer of said working machine, is provided with a manual database, a part inventory database, and an estimate database for each model, wherein said estimate database stores data relating to estimates of costs required for repair in accordance with a content of repair required for a particular trouble,

when said working machine experiences some trouble, said maintenance monitor device transmits information relating to said trouble to said maintenance management server, and said maintenance management server transmits the fact of occurrence of said trouble to said mobile terminal and displays it on a display unit thereof,

said maintenance management server accesses said model information server to search through said manual database based on a request for a maintenance manual sent from said mobile terminal to said maintenance management server, and

said model information server acquires manual information corresponding to said request and transmits it to said mobile terminal,

wherein said model information server searches through said part inventory database and said estimate database corresponding to the content of said trouble, acquires inventory information of the parts for repair of said trouble and estimate information for repair of said trouble, and transmits such information to said mobile terminal.

2. The maintenance system according to claim 1, wherein said model information server searches through said part inventory database and said estimate database corresponding to the content of said trouble, acquires inventory information of the parts for repair of said trouble and estimate information for repair of said trouble, and transmits such information to said mobile terminal in response to a request sent from said mobile terminal,

wherein said request is sent from said mobile terminal when it is not possible to fix the working machine at a site at which the working machine is located without additional parts.