Predictive maintenance system

#1. Technical Field

#The present invention generally relates to a predictive maintenance system and, more particularly, to a predictive maintenance system using a local area network (LAN) to control, to acquire, and to analyze data from a plurality of remote data acquisition nodes.

#2. Description of Related Art

#FIG. 1 illustrates a predictive maintenance system 5 using a local area network in accordance with the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a generalized bock diagram of system control computer 10 of predictive maintenance system 5 of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one of nodes 20 of the predictive maintenance system 5 of FIG. 1.

#The present invention provides a predictive maintenance system for automatically diagnosing and informing a user what, if anything, is wrong with machines in the user's facility or plant. The types of machines to which the predictive maintenance system of the invention may be applied include, but are not limited to, gearboxes, shearers, miners, turbines, pumps, power trains, motors, and fans. The diagnosis is accomplished by comparing current vibration signatures from machines with "ideal" vibration signature models for machines running in "good health". A vibration signature is a "fingerprint" that contains elements which are indicative of the health of a machine. A signature from a gearbox, for example, contains information relating to shaft rotation and alignment; the condition and quality of manufactured gears; the condition of the meshing of those gears; and the condition of the bearing within the gearbox.

#The present invention uses a local area network (LAN) to control and to acquire data from a plurality of remote data acquisition nodes. FIG. 1 illustrates a predictive maintenance system 5 in accordance with the present invention which includes a system control computer 10; a plurality of remote data acquisition nodes 20-1, 20-2, . . . 20-5; and a communications path 25 for coupling the system control computer and the nodes. System control computer 10 and data acquisition nodes 20 are arranged as a LAN and network communication is compliant with the Arcnet protocol, for example. If data acquisition nodes are provided at more than one plant or facility, the system may be arranged as a wide area network (WAN). System control computer 10 may be any PC-based computer having a minimum hardware configuration as follows: a 486DX 66 central processing unit (CPU); 8 MB of RAM; 30 MB of hard disk space; and a 640.times.480.times.256 display. Of course, while a PC-based computer is used in a current implementation, the present invention is not limited in this respect. System control computer 10 is connected to nodes 20 via a network controller card which is connected to an input/output (I/O) slot of the computer. Additional "loops" of nodes may be added to the network by adding additional network controller cards in other I/O slots of the system control computer. As shown in FIG. 1, nodes 20-1, 20-2, and 20-3 are connected in parallel to system control computer 10. Nodes 20-4 and 20-5 are connected in series to node 20-3. Data is acquired independently by each of the nodes and the speed of the data acquisition process is the speed of the data acquisition process of the slowest of the nodes 20 as will be described in detail below.

#FIG. 2 is a generalized block diagram of system control computer 10. System control computer 10 may, for example, be an IBM.RTM.-PC compatible personal computer or any other computer which supports Windows and/or DOS environments and PC-compatible I/O cards. It should be understood that system control computer 10 is not limited to any particular type or brand of computer, and thus contemplates microcomputers to supercomputers. System control computer 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 301 such as an IBM.RTM. PC-compatible CPU which is plugged into bus 303. The system control program which will be described below is loaded into a memory (RAM) 305 during operation. Input/output is provided via an input/output (I/O) device 307. I/O device 307 can be any standard input/output device or devices such as a semiconductor memory, magnetic disk, magnetic tape, optical memory such as a CD-ROM, keyboard, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, scanner, or any compatible or equivalent device. I/O is also provided by a network controller card 315 arranged in an I/O slot of system control computer 10. Network controller card 315 is connected to data acquisition nodes 20 via communications path 25. In order for a user to observe the results and navigate the interface to be described below, a visual display device 311 is used for an output device. Other output devices may include printers, speakers, magnetic or optical disks, tape, etc. A ROM 313 for storing the system BIOS, for example, is also provided. The program code for the system control program and the various data collected during data collection cycles may be stored on a magnetic disk generally identified as I/O device 307 in FIG. 2.