Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system in a specific environment – Quality evaluation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-04
2003-07-15
Barlow, John (Department: 2863)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system in a specific environment
Quality evaluation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06594597
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanical devices and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for determining warranty periods for mechanical devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most mechanical systems, including mechanical presses, have a certain operational lifetime based upon their construction material, their structure, and general dynamic and static loads placed thereon. Manufacturers warrant their products for a particular length of time based upon certain assumptions of customer use and abuse of the apparatus and time of operation.
Currently, the warranty period for a mechanical device, such as a mechanical press, is based upon inaccuracies, such as predicted use conditions and run time. These current methods of determining warranty do not account for certain usage which may adversely effect the mechanical device more quickly than other less abusive usage, nor do they account for time of use which is greater than or less than the predicted amount. For this reason, a mechanical device owner does not have an accurate way to predict the impact of a particular application of the mechanical device. Also, manufacturers do not have accurate means to measure the impact of device application so that they may suggest that the owner take reasonable maintenance procedures to keep the device in good operating condition, offer extended warranties, or offer an automatic buyback program.
Operating mechanical devices, for example, mechanical presses, at particular speed, force, or load levels may have a greater impact on the longevity of the mechanical device. In these cases, the impact on the device may be amplified in such a way that the magnitude of the force or load is not an accurate indicator of the effect of these applications on the longevity of the mechanical device.
What is needed in the art is a way to monitor production operation conditions in a secure and confirmed way so that warranty periods for a particular mechanical device, for example, a mechanical press, may be accurately determined and offers of extended warranties or automatic buyback programs may be offered without risk to the manufacturer. Known problems with load sensors and other ways of accumulating load data on mechanisms include the fact that customers sometimes disengage such-load accumulators and/or counters and thereby undercount or underaccumulate the total use or force applied against the machine.
What is additionally needed in the art is a way to accurately determine the original warranty and actual production use of a mechanical device. Extended warranty could then be accurately determined at the conclusion of the original warranty by subtracting the actual production use from the original warranty. This calculation of extended warranty could be used in many ways, such as automatically offering the purchaser an extended warranty or offering an automatic buyback program.
What is further needed in the art is a system to monitor the actual production use of a machine to assist the customer in keeping particular machine applications within an identified limit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to improve upon the ability to accurately generate a measure of warranty for a mechanical device (e.g. a mechanical press) and to provide a method and apparatus for generating a measure of actual production use of the mechanical device so that an extended warranty may be accurately determined, or a substantially risk-free buyback program may be implemented.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for determining the original warranty and extended warranty of a mechanical device, which includes developing an indicator of use severity that provides an accurate indicator of the impact of different applications on the longevity of the mechanical device.
The invention, in one form thereof, comprises a method of generating of measure of warranty for a mechanical device. The first step of this method is to develop an indicator of use severity for the mechanical device. Use severity is a quantity which relatively indicates how a particular use of a mechanical device impacts the longevity of the mechanical device. A high value of use severity is indicative of an application of the mechanical device which has a greater impact on the longevity of the mechanical device, whereas a low value of use severity would indicate an operation of a mechanical device which would less severely impact the longevity of the mechanical device. The next step of this method is to determine the maximum recommended use severity level. The maximum recommended use severity level is a use severity level beyond which the mechanical device should not be operated. This method further includes the steps of: determining the hours of operation for the original warranty period, providing a computational device and computing the original warranty use severity life for the mechanical device based upon the maximum recommended use severity level and hours of operation for the original warranty period. The maximum recommended use severity level is multiplied by the hours of operation to determine the original warranty period.
The invention, in another form thereof, comprises a method of generating a measure of warranty for a mechanical device. In this form, this method includes the steps of: generating a cumulative measure of actual production use severity of the mechanical device for the original warranty period and computing the extended warranty use severity life remaining at the conclusion of the original warranty period for the mechanical device based upon the original warranty use severity life and the cumulative measure of actual production use severity. Extended warranty use severity life is a cumulative measure of use severity which remains at the conclusion of an original warranty and is computed by subtracting the actual production use severity from the original warranty use severity life.
The invention, in another form thereof, comprises a method of generating a cumulative measure of the actual production use severity of the mechanical device. This method includes the steps of: determining a count quantity for the mechanical device, monitoring the actual production use severity of the mechanical device, monitoring the count quantity of the mechanical device, tabulating actual production use severity versus count quantity, and computing a cumulative actual production use severity value for the original warranty period based upon the tabulated use severity versus count quantity values. Tabulated use severity versus count quantity values are summed over count quantity to produce a cumulative measure of the actual production use severity of the mechanical device which has units of (use severity •count quantity).
The invention, in another form thereof, comprises a method of generating a measure of the extended warranty for a mechanical device. In one form, this method comprises the steps of: computing the average actual production use severity for the original warranty period and computing the extended warranty period based upon the extended warranty use severity life remaining at the conclusion of the original warranty period for the mechanical device and the average actual production use severity for the original warranty period. Extended warranty use severity life remaining at the conclusion of the original warranty is divided by the average actual production use severity for the original warranty period to determine the extended warranty period. In another form of the current invention, this method comprises the steps of: computing actual production use severity over discrete time intervals of equal length based upon the average actual production use severity measured over the discrete time interval and the length of the time interval, computing the extended warranty remaining at the conclusion of the first discrete time interval based upon the extended warranty use severity life and the actual production use severity for the first discrete
Barlow John
Knuth Randall J.
Lau Tung
The Minster Machine Company
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