Equipment component monitoring and replacement management system

A computer-based method for managing replaceable components for equipment having a plurality of components, each component having a limited useful life, comprising:

• controlling a computer program module executing on a processor for defining a duty profile comprising a plurality of usage cases for the equipment, each usage case involving two or more of the plurality of components and specified operating conditions assumed to be experienced by the involved components during the execution of each of the usage cases;
• controlling a computer program module executing on a processor for determining a theoretical useful life for each component involved in the duty profile, said theoretical useful life being based on component wear parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions;
• receiving data from sensors for determining and monitoring the occurrence of equipment operation corresponding to a usage case and for making measurements of actual operating conditions experienced in the equipment operation;
• storing in a memory the measurements of actual operating conditions forte plurality of components;
• and
• controlling a computer program module executing on a processor for computing an adjusted theoretical useful life for a component after the component has experienced one or more operations, by:
• responsive to the measurements of actual operating conditions, calculating one or more wear parameters for each operation and accumulating these calculated parameters for such component;
• and
• based on a comparison of the one or more accumulated, calculated wear parameters from actual operating conditions to accumulated wear parameters assumed to occur under the specified operating conditions in the determination of a theoretical useful life, determining the amount of the adjusted theoretical useful life consumed in the one or more operations.

A method for monitoring of the condition of remote equipment having at least one wear component, said at least one wear component having a useful life dependent on the operating conditions the at least one wear component experiences, comprising:

• defining two or more raw data measurements tat vary as the remote equipment is used under different operating conditions;
• controlling a software component executing on a processor for receiving data from sensors cooperating with the remote equipment to sense operating conditions and producing the two or more raw data measurements and for transmitting said sensor data to a central monitoring processor;
• controlling a software component executing at the central monitoring processor for parsing the sensor data into the two or more raw data measurements for processing;
• controlling a software component executing on a processor for calculating from the two or more raw data measurements at least one calculated wear parameter for the at least one wear component, the value of the at least one calculated wear parameter being weighted by values of the two or more raw data measurements used in the at least one calculated wear parameter calculation;
• controlling a software component executing on a processor for collecting a time sequence of the values of the at least one calculated wear parameter for the at least one wear component and from the time sequence of values calculating an accumulated wear value over the usage of the at least one wear component;
• and
• controlling a software component executing on a processor for evaluating the accumulated wear value against a maximum wear rating for the at least one wear component and responsive thereto providing a useful life operations notice.