Interactive maintenance management alarm handling
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method of handling equipment failure alarms comprising the steps of:
- receiving an alarm from a transceiver coupled to a heavy vehicle, the heavy vehicle including at least one of a dozer, drill, haul truck, loader and shovel, said alarm indicating a state of at least one of a component and a system of the heavy vehicle, the state being defined by at least one of an alarm generator located on the at least one of a component and a system, an excavation record, a dump record, and an equipment status time, the alarm including an abnormal event identifier and at least one of an equipment identifier, a location, and an equipment operator identification;
storing the received alarm in a database;
evaluating whether a notification of the received alarm should be sent to a third party maintenance organization;
when notification of the received alarm should be sent to a third party maintenance organization, sending an alarm packet describing the received alarm to the third party maintenance organization;
determining that the alarm has not been snoozed by examining a status identifier of the alarm, wherein said status identifier indicates whether an alarm notification is temporarily suppressed;
analyzing the alarm, by;
identifying a minimum health factor for at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle,identifying an occurrence frequency of the alarm,determining whether the minimum health factor for the at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle has been violated, andusing the determination of whether the minimum health factor has been violated and the occurrence frequency of the alarm to determine whether the alarm is to be snoozed; and
when the alarm is not to be snoozed, displaying the alarm for action or information.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An Interactive Maintenance Management System (“IMMS”) (10) is an alarm handling system (FIG. 2) for handling alarms (102) that indicate present or imminent equipment failure. The IMMS (10) may be utilized in industrial situations, such as strip-mines (14), to reduce equipment (12) downtime and reduce or prevent equipment failure. The IMMS (10) utilizes a flexible response system to track, analyze, and improve performance of the alarm handling system.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of handling equipment failure alarms comprising the steps of:
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receiving an alarm from a transceiver coupled to a heavy vehicle, the heavy vehicle including at least one of a dozer, drill, haul truck, loader and shovel, said alarm indicating a state of at least one of a component and a system of the heavy vehicle, the state being defined by at least one of an alarm generator located on the at least one of a component and a system, an excavation record, a dump record, and an equipment status time, the alarm including an abnormal event identifier and at least one of an equipment identifier, a location, and an equipment operator identification; storing the received alarm in a database; evaluating whether a notification of the received alarm should be sent to a third party maintenance organization; when notification of the received alarm should be sent to a third party maintenance organization, sending an alarm packet describing the received alarm to the third party maintenance organization; determining that the alarm has not been snoozed by examining a status identifier of the alarm, wherein said status identifier indicates whether an alarm notification is temporarily suppressed; analyzing the alarm, by; identifying a minimum health factor for at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle, identifying an occurrence frequency of the alarm, determining whether the minimum health factor for the at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle has been violated, and using the determination of whether the minimum health factor has been violated and the occurrence frequency of the alarm to determine whether the alarm is to be snoozed; and when the alarm is not to be snoozed, displaying the alarm for action or information.
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2. A method of handling equipment failure alarms comprising the steps of:
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receiving an alarm from a transceiver coupled to a heavy vehicle, said alarm indicating a state of at least one of a component and a system of the heavy vehicle, the state being defined by at least one of an alarm generator located on the at least one of a component and a system, an excavation record, a dump record, and an equipment status time, the alarm including an abnormal event identifier and at least one of an equipment identifier, a location, and an equipment operator identification; storing the received alarm in a database; determining that the alarm has not been snoozed by examining a status identifier of the alarm, wherein said status identifier indicates whether an alarm notification is temporarily suppressed; analyzing the alarm, by; determining an availability of a maintenance facility to repair the at least one of a component and a system of the heavy vehicle, identifying a minimum health factor for at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle, and using the minimum health factor and the availability of the maintenance facility to determine whether the alarm is to be snoozed; when the alarm is to be snoozed, setting snooze criteria based upon the availability of the maintenance facility; and when the maintenance facility is available, releasing the alarm. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of handling equipment failure alarms comprising the steps of:
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receiving an alarm from a transceiver coupled to a heavy vehicle, the heavy vehicle including at least one of a dozer, drill, haul truck, loader and shovel, said alarm indicating a state of at least one of a mechanical component and a mechanical system of the heavy vehicle, the state being defined by at least one of an alarm generator located on the at least one of a component and a system, an excavation record, a dump record, and an equipment status time, the alarm including an abnormal event identifier and at least one of an equipment identifier, a location, and an equipment operator identification; storing the received alarm in a database; determining that the alarm has not been snoozed by examining a status identifier of the alarm, wherein said status identifier indicates whether an alarm notification is temporarily suppressed; analyzing the alarm, by; identifying a minimum health factor for at least one of the component and system of the heavy vehicle, the minimum health factor being characterized by a predetermined rate of change of a health factor of the heavy vehicle, and determining whether the minimum health factor for the at least one of the mechanical component and mechanical system of the heavy vehicle has been violated to determine whether the alarm is to be snoozed; when the alarm is not to be snoozed, displaying the alarm for action or information; and when the alarm is to be snoozed; receiving a user-defined criteria to act as a trigger, the user defined criteria identifying a maintenance facility that is capable of repairing the at least one of a component and a system of the heavy vehicle, setting snooze criteria, the snooze criteria being based upon the user-defined criteria, determining whether the maintenance facility identified by the trigger is available, and when the maintenance facility is available, releasing the alarm.
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Specification