Predictive Maintenance

Although maintenance intervals depend on the specific demands of the machine, they are often carried out at fixed intervals. The aim of predictive maintenance is to adjust the maintenance requirement according to the load and to carry it out at the best possible time for continuously high-availability systems.

Application examples

In a typical application scenario, changes in the operating variables are used to identify deviations from optimal operating conditions. For this purpose, functions are included with which meaningful internal process variables, such as the currents of individual axes, can be measured, recorded and also evaluated. This test includes a stepped evaluation in which both a fault limit, which leads to an immediate stop of the machine, and a more narrowly set warning limit, which merely gives an indication, can be used.

This test includes a staged evaluation in which both a fault limit, which leads to an immediate stop of the machine, and a more restricted warning limit, which only gives a hint, can be used.

Critical components, whose failure could endanger the production rate, must be protected expensively by redundant systems without the possibility of predicting the time of failure. In order to avoid these costs, ZfT is developing adequate Failure Detection Identification and Repair (FDIR) methods to detect faults in advance. Important steps in the information gathering process include ensuring data quality and synchronicity, visual preparation of the analysis and the introduction of expert knowledge in the form of rules. The condition monitoring system thus optimizes maintenance intervals in advance.