Determination of optimal post-warranty variable maintenance period for repairable second-hand product based on mean residual life

Due to the increased transactions of second-hand products in the market, the optimization of maintenance strategy for the second-hand product has become very important issue to attract a great attention from many researchers of late. This paper proposes a new post-warranty strategy with a variable self-maintenance period for the second-hand product, assuming that the product is replaced by another one on the first failure following a fixed length of post-warranty self-maintenance period. During the non-renewing warranty period, the product is subject to preventive maintenance periodically at a prorated cost while only minimal repair is implemented at each failure by the dealer. The main goal of this study is to determine an optimal length of post-warranty self-maintenance period which minimizes the expected cost rate per unit time during the product’s life cycle from the user’s perspective. This approach considers not only the periodic preventive maintenance during the warranty period, but also the remaining life distribution of the product after the warranty expires, which is the significant difference of this work from many existing maintenance policies. For this purpose, we formulate the expected length of life cycle and evaluate the expected total cost incurred during the life cycle of the second-had product which is purchased at the age of [Formula: see text] The existence of the optimal self-maintenance period is proved analytically under mild conditions and the proposed maintenance model is compared with an existing model with regard to the expected cost rate. Finally, assuming that the life distribution of the product follows a Weibull distribution, the effect of relevant parameters on the optimal self-maintenance period is analyzed numerically.

A New Class of Life Distributions Based on Moment Inequalities

In this paper, a new class of life distribution is named new better than renewal used in moment generating function (NBRUmgf). A new test for exponentiality versus NBRUmgf based on moment inequalities is established. Pitman's asymptotic efficiencies, powers and critical values of the new test are calculated to assess the performance of the test. The right censored data is handled also. Finally some applications are applied to the new test.

Accelerated Life Reliability Evaluation of Grating Ruler for CNC Machine Tools Based on Competing Risk Model and Incomplete Data

Grating ruler is the high-precision linear displacement sensor used in the servo control system of CNC machine tools. It is one of the key components affecting the machining accuracy of CNC machine tools. Due to the long life-time of grating ruler, and it will cost a lot of time and resources to evaluate its reliability level by traditional life test. At the same time, there are some incomplete data in the failure data, which will cause inaccurate evaluation results. In this paper, an accelerated life reliability evaluation method of grating ruler based on competing risk model and incomplete data is proposed. Firstly, according to the characteristics of grating ruler, the life distribution model based on competitive risk is established, and the representation method and conversion method of failure data considering incomplete data are proposed. Secondly, the accelerated life test system which can apply temperature and humidity accelerated stress is built, and the reliability level of JFT series closed absolute grating ruler is evaluated by the proposed method. Finally, the proposed method is compared with the single life distribution model to verify the effectiveness.

Engineering assessment of minimum fatigue life for given probability of its non-exceedance

Object and purpose of research. This paper discusses structural materials under cyclic load. The purpose is to determine the minimum fatigue life corresponding to a certain non-exceedance probability of this value. Materials and methods. The study was performed on three structural materials: steel 15ХМ, steel 08Kh18N10Т and titanium alloy PТ-7М. Initial estimate of fatigue life distribution parameters relied on the data about guaranteed maximum and minimum values of temporary resistance and relative cross-section tapering. The assessment was performed as per a common curve “conditionally elastic stress amplitude versus number of cycles to failure” taking into account the mechanical prop-erties of given material. The values of minimum fatigue life were obtained as per two different methods: statistical simulation of the random values following the Weibull distribution law and the analytical expression for probability density of the lows for given distribution function of random value and fixed scope of sampling. Main results. The lows yielded by statistical simulation are more conservative than those yielded by the analytical formula. The margin in terms of the number of cycles to failure stipulated as 10 in several regulatory documents seems to be somewhat unsubstantiated. This margin is too great in the low-cycle domain and too small in the high-cycle one. Conclusion. This paper postulates the existence of guaranteed maximum and minimum values for mechanical properties of structural materials, namely temporary resistance and relative cross-section tapering. These values were applied to well-known analytical curves of fatigue, which finally yielded possible variation ranges for fatigue life at various amplitudes of conditionally elastic reduced stresses, assuming the existence of a certain shift in the sensitivity limit of fatigue life distribution. These data were further used to establish standard deviations and mathematical expectations for the number of cycles to failure.

Investigation of Degradation and Upgradation Models for Flexible Unit Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Research on flexible unit systems (FUS) with the context of descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analysis have remarkably progressed in recent times, being now reinforced in the current Industry 4.0 era with the increased focus on integration of distributed and digitalized systems. In the existing literature, most of the work focused on the individual contributions of the above mentioned three analyses. Moreover, the current literature is unclear with respect to the integration of degradation and upgradation models for FUS. In this paper, a systematic literature review on degradation, residual life distribution, workload adjustment strategy, upgradation, and predictive maintenance as major performance measures to investigate the performance of the FUS has been considered. In order to identify the key issues and research gaps in the existing literature, the 59 most relevant papers from 2009 to 2020 have been sorted and analyzed. Finally, we identify promising research opportunities that could expand the scope and depth of FUS.

On the verge of life: Distribution of nucleotide sequences in viral RNAs

The aim of the study is to analyze viruses using parameters obtained from distributions of nucleotide sequences in the viral RNA. Seeking for the input data homogeneity, we analyze single-stranded RNA viruses only. Two approaches are used to obtain the nucleotide sequences; In the first one, chunks of equal length (four nucleotides) are considered. In the second approach, the whole RNA genome is divided into parts by adenine or the most frequent nucleotide as a "space''. Rank--frequency distributions are studied in both cases. The defined nucleotide sequences are signs comparable to a certain extent to syllables or words as seen from the nature of their rank--frequency distributions. Within the first approach, the P\'olya and the negative hypergeometric distribution yield the best fit. For the distributions obtained within the second approach, we have calculated a set of parameters, including entropy, mean sequence length, and its dispersion. The calculated parameters became the basis for the classification of viruses. We observed that proximity of viruses on planes spanned on various pairs of parameters corresponds to related species. In certain cases, such a proximity is observed for unrelated species as well calling thus for the expansion of the set of parameters used in the classification. We also observed that the fourth most frequent nucleotide sequences obtained within the second approach are of different nature in case of human coronaviruses (different nucleotides for MERS, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 versus identical nucleotides for four other coronaviruses). We expect that our findings will be useful as a supplementary tool in the classification of diseases caused by RNA viruses with respect to severity and contagiousness.