A research on the application of prognostics and health management to process system

To face new challenges appearing in reliability and availability of equipment, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) is proposed and shows great power in guiding maintenance plan and cutting related costs. Nevertheless, the industrial application of PHM is still immature. This paper will discuss some important points on process system PHM. Firstly, process system PHM's characteristics and benefit will be introduced. The new potential of PHM by cooperating with other techniques and methods, such as lean manufacturing, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM), Physical of Failure (PoF) and Product Life Management (PLM), will be elaborated. To build a PHM system of process system, an applicable establishment strategy will be recommended. Then, to determine the main objects and parameters which need monitoring in PHM system, a new method integrating PFMECA and aFMEA will be proposed. Finally, a specific process system will be given to exemplify the new method.