The characteristics and trends of future maintenance technology development

Advanced maintenance technology is a comprehensive engineering technology that is guided by modern maintenance theories and supported by information technology, simulation technology and material technology, etc., to maintain and restore the good technical condition of mechanical equipment and maximize its efficiency. Maintenance technology will run through the entire life cycle of mechanical equipment, including its argumentation, research and development, production, use, maintenance and retirement and scrapping. It features comprehensiveness, cutting-edge nature and practicality, and has become a common key basic technology required for mechanical equipment.

Since the 1950s and 1960s, the essence and objective laws of maintenance have been deeply and extensively studied, and maintenance practice has developed rapidly. This has transformed maintenance from passive to active, extended it from the usage stage to the entire life cycle of mechanical equipment, evolved it from single operation management to systems engineering management, advanced it from current maintenance support research to pre-maintenance support research, and moved it from a scattered, qualitative and empirical stage to a systematic, quantitative and scientific one. The corresponding maintenance technology has also evolved from a relatively single maintenance skill to a comprehensive engineering technology with rich connotations. The future development of maintenance technology will mainly present the following characteristics and trends.

1? The concepts and theories of maintenance are constantly innovating

Maintenance, as a process, is often defined as a series of tasks that can produce certain effects and have logical relationships. With the development of maintenance practice, the understanding of maintenance has broken through the traditional definition, and its concept and connotation have been continuously expanding: the ideas and strategies of mechanical equipment maintenance have been constantly evolving. From "Post-event Maintenance (BM)" to "Preventive Maintenance (PM)", "Predictive maintenance (PDM)", and even "improvement Maintenance (CM)" and "risk maintenance", theories such as "concurrent engineering" have been transplanted, deepening the theory of "reliability centered maintenance". Based on the development of information, network and other technologies, developed countries have also put forward new theories of maintenance support such as "precise support" and "agile support", which are suitable for meeting the increasingly decentralized and mobile requirements. These theoretical innovations, based on the advancement of maintenance technology, have effectively guided the development of maintenance technology.

2? It relies more on the application of basic research in maintenance technology

To prevent and solve faults from the root, maintenance technology must be capable of conducting theoretical exploration and experimental research on mechanical issues such as wear, corrosion, aging, fatigue, failure and response to unstable loads of mechanical equipment in maintenance practice, as well as regular issues such as the prediction of mechanical equipment life. And apply the theories of basic science to provide theoretical and experimental basis for solving common problems in different fields of maintenance. The applied basic research of maintenance technology needs to widely integrate the basic research or applied basic research achievements in the fields of materials, metallurgy, machinery, mechanics and other scientific and technological fields to promote the development of maintenance technology. The foundation of research such as new lubricants, materials for controlling corrosion, and anti-fouling coatings lies in surface chemistry and applied materials research. Fundamental research in materials, structures and data analysis will further enhance the sensitivity of non-destructive assessment methods.

3? The driving role of information technology is becoming increasingly prominent

Information technology, with its extensive penetration, functional integration and efficiency multiplication, has very wide applications in many aspects such as maintenance operations, management, training and guidance. All resource visualization, virtual maintenance, remote maintenance, interactive electronic technical manuals and other technologies have been derived, promoting the progress of traditional monitoring and diagnosis technologies, generating new instruments and systems such as monitoring and diagnosis based on virtual instruments, and driving the intelligent development of maintenance decision support systems. It has enhanced the ability to retrieve information from various completely different and highly dispersed systems and databases, and accelerated the integration of maintenance information systems with maintenance support and other systems.

4? The trend of comprehensive and cross-disciplinary development is obvious

Maintenance technology is a relatively typical comprehensive engineering technology. Its development and innovation increasingly rely on the integration, penetration and intersection of multiple disciplines. Not only have many emerging research fields of maintenance technology transcended traditional disciplinary classifications, but also many traditional research fields of maintenance technology have broken through the original traditional technical boundaries through more in-depth development and innovation. As the fault diagnosis system has gradually developed into a complex entity, it encompasses technologies such as pattern recognition, imagery thinking, visualization, modeling, parallel reasoning, and data compression. The integration of these technologies has effectively enhanced the reasoning, concurrent processing, information synthesis and knowledge integration capabilities of the fault diagnosis system, promoting the development of fault diagnosis technology towards informatization, networking, intelligence and integration.

5. Develop towards the entire system and the entire life cycle of mechanical equipment

To meet the requirements of the full-system and full-life development of mechanical equipment, by developing technologies such as the argumentation of mechanical equipment maintainability indicators, analysis and design, and test evaluation, modern maintenance ideas, maintenance guarantee requirements, and improvement demands for mechanical equipment can be effectively fed back and influence the process of mechanical equipment's scheme argumentation, performance requirements, functional design, and other aspects of its research and development and transformation.

At present, maintainability technology has basically achieved standardization, normalization and institutionalization of application. The integrated, computerized and intelligent development of future maintainability technology will further promote the research on the integrated demonstration, testing, verification and evaluation methods of the performance and maintainability of mechanical equipment, as well as the research on the maintainability technology and supportability and other comprehensive attributes of software products. Furthermore, as the connection between the maintenance, research and development, and transformation of mechanical equipment becomes increasingly close, it will further promote the integration of mechanical equipment maintenance and research and development technologies.

Since the 1980s, after years of development, especially during the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period, China's mechanical equipment maintenance technology has made considerable progress. A number of achievements have been made in repair techniques and fault diagnosis, laying a technical foundation for the sustained, rapid and healthy development of maintenance technology. However, at present, the research and application of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis in our country are not extensive or in-depth enough. The comprehensive and information-based level of maintenance support is still relatively low. The design and verification technology of maintainability is still far from mature. The research on basic issues such as the fault and repair mechanism, corrosion and protection mechanism of software-intensive mechanical equipment has only just begun. The development of maintenance technology still faces huge challenges, and there is still a considerable gap between its overall level and the demands of China's modernization drive.

Advanced maintenance, manufacturing, material technology, general testing, reliability commonalities, computer and simulation technologies, etc. all belong to the important supporting technologies and common basic technologies for the development of mechanical equipment. They are closely related while also having unique research scopes. These technologies are interwoven and innovated in an integrated manner, which is an important trend in the development of maintenance technology and deserves high attention.

At present, China is following a sustainable development path and building a conservation-minded society. China is a major equipment country. Wear, corrosion and fatigue during the operation of equipment are inevitable. Developing advanced maintenance technologies can not only ensure the normal operation of equipment, but also extend its service life, fully utilize the residual value of maintenance parts, and save the cost of purchasing new products, etc. The benefits of cost savings, material savings, energy conservation and environmental protection it brings are self-evident. This will drive the development of maintenance science and technology in our country to a higher level and have a profound impact on accelerating the modernization process of maintenance.