Abstract
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is a complex, high cost, and long-life product. It is a widely known fact that performing a system reliability test of a MRI system during the development phase is a challenging task. The major challenges include sample size, high test cost, and long test duration. This paper introduces a novel approach to perform a MRI system reliability test in a reasonably acceptable time with one sample size. Our approach is based on an accelerated reliability growth test, which consists of test cycle made of a very high-energy time-of-flight three-dimensional (TOF3D) pulse sequence representing an actual hospital usage scenario. First, we construct a nominal day usage scenario based on actual data collected from an MRI system used inside the hospital. Then, we calculate the life-time stress based on a usage scenario. Finally, we develop an accelerated reliability growth test cycle based on a TOF3D pulse sequence that exerts highest vibration energy on the gradient coil and MRI system. We use a vibration energy model to map the life-time stress and reduce the test duration from 537 to 55 days. We use a Crow AMSAA plot to demonstrate that system design reaches its useful life after crossing the infant mortality phase.
Highlights
A system reliability test of a high-cost and long-life repairable product during the development phase and prior to product launch is a big challenge [1,2,3,4]
We propose a novel approach to perform a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system accelerated reliability growth test based on a hospital usage scenario on one sample size in a reasonably acceptable time
It is performed during pilot production stage, which is after goal targeted during product planning phase [2]
Summary
A system reliability test of a high-cost and long-life repairable product during the development phase and prior to product launch is a big challenge [1,2,3,4]. Parts and software reliability tests are relatively well proven concepts, easy to perform, take less test time and cost less compared to a system reliability test [4] They lack the capacity to identify unknown and hidden failures especially due to complex interaction between hardware–hardware, hardware–software, and software–software in a product. We propose a novel approach to perform a MRI system accelerated reliability growth test based on a hospital usage scenario on one sample size in a reasonably acceptable time. The test duration was 537 days, which was extremely high and unacceptable to any product development company To resolve this issue, we identify a time-of-flight three-dimensional (TOF3D) pulse sequence stress. We present the current challenges to perform a MRI system reliability growth test in addition to identifying the system stress condition and stress parameters.
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