How to determine the remaining life of machine parts

Abstract

The article presents three strategies for maintenance and repair of machines that control the pre-selected and justified parameters of the technical condition of the machine, as well as the costs of eliminating failures for these strategies and the possibility of reducing them. (Research purpose) The research purpose is to identify the most effective way to determine the residual life of machine parts. (Materials and methods) The article proposes a strategy for maintenance and repair of machines, in which a special place is occupied by ways of reducing the mechanical friction losses, increasing the efficiency of the machine and the service life of its parts. The article notes that in order to meet the service life, it is necessary to monitor their remaining life visually or using appropriate sensors. In order to determine the remaining resource in more accurately way, we suggested that it would be measured several times, preferably using different methods or devices. Authors designed a computer program that allows to estimate the remaining resource using an interval estimation of random values for a given probability of failure-free operation of the machine part. The plunger pairs of a high-pressure fuel pump were chosen as the object of research. As a diagnostic parameter that characterizes the technical condition of the pump, its starting cycle feed was used, the value of which was determined on different stands. (Results and discussion) Article presents the values of the average resources of the plunger pairs, their dispersion around the corresponding average values, and calculated their average residual resource as an interval estimate for a given probability of failure-free operation. (Conclusions) The research results have shown a possibility of using the residual resource as the basis of the proposed strategy for maintenance and repair of machines based on minimizing the residual resource of their parts. The most important unsolved task for this strategy remains the selection and justification of primary diagnostic sensors for assessing the residual life of machine parts.