Method and tools for machine maintainability design in VE

Maintainability is a key factor affecting the availability and the operating and maintenance costs of machines. With the service sector in company operations continuously expanding, good maintainability of products is becoming a strategic issue. This is emphasized by the fact that machine manufacturers are now often required to provide the customer with availability and realized performance - not only a machine with some theoretical technical characteristics. However, the maintainability and maintenance operations of machines are not often sufficiently designed or tested until real maintenance tasks emerge in the field. This paper introduces a new approach and method to design, test, and analyze the maintainability of machines already in their development and design phase by effective use of virtual technologies and virtual tools. The paper is based on a large Finnish research project focused on the industrial applications of elevators and heavy-duty rock crushers. The use of virtual technologies is based on 3D CAD-models of machines, from which virtual machines can be created. The models simulate real machine operation in virtual real-like environments, and the machines are realistically maintained with supportive hardware, such as haptic controllers. The developed method guarantees maintainability with verifiable maintenance and resources for the machine. In addition, it promotes the use of virtual machine models in the production of service manuals and training simulators. Based on two industrial case studies, this paper analyzes the adaptability of virtual tools in the design of maintainability.