Engineers have been applying Prognostics to mechanical components for many years.
For example:
- Motors, increase in current or noise
- Mechanical pumps, progressive increase in vibration
- Thermal systems, time to achieve a set temperature
- Fluid systems, change in pressure
However, most industries building systems with mechanical components choose not to use prognostics because of the cost of the instrumentation within the product. Products that have on board “smarts” can choose to include diagnostics with less effort or expense. With advances in technology, the cost of the instrumentation is dropping. This not only means that adding the hardware to support advanced metrology is more feasible but that many of these components/systems may have already been added for other functionality and controls improvements in the product. It doesn’t take much brainstorming to find creative ways to use these existing sensory systems. [Read more…]