JP2003242579A - Remote fault diagnosis system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a time period between a time when an abnormality is detected and a time when a recovery processing is performed when the abnormality occurs in the drive control device of an industrial machine. <P>SOLUTION: If the abnormality occurs in the drive control device 16, the abnormality is detected by an abnormality detector 17, and the detected abnormality information is transmitted from a radio transmitter 19 through a communication network to the first cell phone 24 and the first personal computer 25 of a department in charge of maintenance of the plant equipment and to the second cell phone 26 and the second personal computer 27 of a maintenance company (including the maintenance department of a drive control device manufacturing company). The second personal computer 27 retrieves database in response to the abnormal information, prepares the cause of the abnormality and recovery method, and transmits the cause of the abnormality and the recovery method to the first cell phone 24, the first personal computer 25, and the second cell phone 26 through the communication network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote fault diagnosis system for informing a maintenance department of a factory facility from a maintenance company when an abnormality occurs in a drive control device of an industrial machine, of a cause of the abnormality and a recovery method. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when an abnormality occurs in a drive control device for an industrial machine, a worker at a factory site notices a machine stop or an alarm and contacts a person in charge of maintenance of factory equipment.
When the maintenance staff of the factory equipment sees the error display (lamp lighting, code number, character string, etc.) in the drive control device, determines the cause of the abnormality and performs recovery processing, and when the maintenance staff cannot recover. Calls the maintenance company (maintenance department of the maintenance company or the company that manufactures the drive control device, etc.) with information such as the status of the mechanical device and the display of the abnormality detection device, and the cause and restoration of the abnormality. I was getting instructions on how.

[0003]

With such a conventional method, it is often the case that a worker on the site is delayed in contacting a person in charge of maintenance of factory equipment. In particular, when the maintenance person is not in a predetermined place or goes to a remote place from the factory, a big delay occurs. Also, even if the maintenance person returns to the equipment site, if it is difficult for the maintenance person to recover, the abnormality information must be transmitted to the maintenance company, but in many cases the abnormality information is not accurately transmitted. This causes a further delay in recovery.

An object of the present invention is to provide a remote fault diagnosis system which can shorten the time from the abnormality detection of the drive control device to the restoration process.

[0005]

According to the present invention, when an abnormality occurs in a drive control device for an industrial machine provided in a factory or the like, the cause of the drive control device abnormality and a recovery method are notified to a department in charge of maintenance of factory equipment. In a remote failure diagnosis system, an abnormality detection unit that detects an abnormality of a drive control device and creates abnormality information, and an abnormality information created by the abnormality detection unit from a wireless transmitter provided in a factory, etc. via a packet communication network to a factory. A means for transmitting to the first mobile phone of the equipment maintenance department and to the first personal computer of the factory equipment maintenance department and the second personal computer of the maintenance company through the packet communication network and the Internet. And packet communication with the Internet from the second PC, which contains information about the cause of the error and the recovery method created by the second PC in response to the error information. Transmits to the first mobile telephone via, characterized in that it comprises means for transmitting to the first computer via the Internet, the.

According to the present invention, means for transmitting abnormality information created by the abnormality detecting means from a wireless transmitter provided in a factory or the like to a second mobile phone of a maintenance company through a packet communication network, and a second means. It is preferable that the personal computer further comprises means for transmitting the information on the cause of the abnormality and the recovery method created by the personal computer from the second personal computer to the second mobile phone of the maintenance company through the Internet and the packet communication network.

Further, the second personal computer stores an abnormality cause and a restoration method for each abnormality information of the drive control device as a database, searches the database in response to the abnormality information, and then provides information regarding the abnormality cause and the restoration method. Is preferably created.

Further, the abnormality information created by the abnormality detecting means is converted into a predetermined communication protocol by a protocol converter provided in a factory or the like, and a predetermined communication speed, transmission method, and transmission power are obtained by a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like. It is preferably sent to the packet communication network via an antenna.

Further, the communication protocol for the abnormality information, the cause of the abnormality, and the information on the restoration method is an SM email format.
TP (Simple Mail Transfer P)
rotocol) is preferable.

Further, the drive control device is preferably a shear line drive control device for continuously cutting the strip-shaped material into a predetermined length.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote fault diagnosis system according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to FIG. 1, when a malfunction (including a failure) occurs in a drive control device for an industrial machine, especially a drive control device for a shear line that continuously cuts a strip-shaped material into a predetermined length, a company that performs maintenance A remote failure diagnosis system for notifying the cause of abnormality and the method of restoration to the department in charge of maintenance of factory equipment from a maintenance company or a maintenance department of a shear line drive control device manufacturer will be described.

There are various mechanical constructions of the shear line for continuously cutting a strip-shaped material such as an iron plate, an aluminum plate, a film, a paper, a cardboard paper, etc. into a predetermined length. A shear line composed of 3, a leveler or slitter 4, a major roll 5, and a rotary cutter 6 is cited.

Generally, there is a portion called an uncoiler upstream of the shear line, and the material 2 is pulled out from the material coil 1 by the pull roll 3 in this portion. The material coil 1 is driven by a motor 7, and the pull roll 3 is driven by a motor 9. Pulse encoders 8 and 10 are connected to the motors 7 and 9, respectively, to detect the rotation speed. The motor 7 performs torque control so that a constant tension is applied to the material 2, and the motor 9 performs speed control so that the shear line speed becomes a predetermined speed.

The leveler or slitter 4 is a pull roll 3
The material 2 extracted by the method is smoothed, trimmed, or sliced. The motor 12 and the pulse encoder 11 that detects the rotation speed drive-control the leveler or the slitter 4.

The material 2 thus treated by the leveler or slitter 4 enters the next cutting step.

First, the measure roll 5 and the pulse encoder 13 detect both the speed and the moving length of the material 2. The motor 15 drives the rotary cutter 6, and the pulse encoder 14 detects both the rotation speed and the rotation circumference of the blade edge of the rotary cutter 6. By calculating the pulse train signal from the pulse encoder 13 and the pulse train signal from the pulse encoder 14, the rotational speed of the cutting edge of the rotary cutter 6 is synchronized with the speed of the material 2 and the rotary cutter 6
Cuts the material 2 into a predetermined length. Cut material 2
Are transported to a predetermined place by a conveyor or the like. Here, the steps after the material 2 is cut are omitted.

The shear line drive control described above is general, and in FIG. 1, the shear line drive controller 16 controls the drive of the shear line. The shear line drive control device 16 monitors the voltage, current, temperature, motor rotation speed, material speed, etc. in each control unit, and when an abnormality is detected, an alarm is displayed or an abnormality code is displayed and the line is displayed. The operation is stopped.

In the remote fault diagnosis system according to the present invention,
In addition to the shear line drive control device 16, an abnormality detection device 17, a protocol converter 18, a wireless transmitter 19
Is equipped with.

The abnormality detecting device 17 detects an abnormality of the shear line drive control device 16. The abnormality detection device 17 constantly collects checkpoint data of each control unit of the shear line drive control device 16, and when the abnormality is detected, not only the line operation is stopped but also the data, Message information that configures an abnormal code, customer and device identification number, occurrence time, etc. in an E-mail format document or symbol, and one or more E-mail address information at the RS232C signal level without any protocol converter 18 Send to.

The protocol converter 18 converts the information input by the RS232C into TCP / IP (Transmission).
on Control Protocol / Inter
SMTP (Si compatible with net Protocol)
mple Mail Transfer Protocol
ol) format email and send it to the wireless transmitter 19.

The radio transmitter 19 sends radio waves to the packet communication network 21 via the antenna 20 at a predetermined communication speed, transmission method and transmission power.

The wireless transmitter 19 is, for example, Mobile Dork (registered trademark) of NTT Docomo.
To use. The packet communication network 21 uses, for example, a NTT Docomo Dopa network (DoPa network) (registered trademark).

The message information created by the abnormality detecting device 17 is wirelessly transmitted via the packet communication network 21 to the above-mentioned E
According to the email address, the first department in charge of factory equipment maintenance
Of the maintenance company and the first personal computer 25 of the maintenance department of the factory equipment and the second of the maintenance company. 2 is sent to the personal computer 27.

Packet communication network 21 and Internet 23
A gateway server is required between the two, which uses the packet communication compatible provider 22 or NTT DoCoMo's DoPa Internet service.

The first mobile phone 24 and the second mobile phone 26 do not need any special function as long as they can receive e-mail. The first personal computer 25 and the second personal computer 27 may be directly connected to a telephone line or may be connected to an in-house LAN.

Second PC 27 of maintenance company
Stores the cause of abnormality and the recovery method of the shear line drive control device 16 as a database for each abnormality information, and when an email is received, it is stored in the database in response to the abnormality information included in the message. Search for the error cause and recovery method, and create a message related to the error cause and recovery method. Further, the created message is transmitted by e-mail to the first personal computer 25 of the maintenance department of the factory equipment via the Internet 23, and at the same time, the Internet 23 and the packet communication network 21 are transmitted.
To the first mobile phone 24 and the second mobile phone 26 via.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. The operation will be described based on this figure.

When the abnormality detecting device 17 detects an abnormality in the shear line drive control device (step 101), message information in E-mail format is automatically created (step 10).
2) The mail is transmitted through the protocol converter 18, the wireless transmitter 19, and the antenna 20 (step 103).
The mail is transmitted to the first mobile phone 24 and the second mobile phone 26 via the packet communication network (A) (step 104).

At the same time, the same mail is transmitted to the first personal computer 25 and the second personal computer 27 via the packet communication network and the Internet (B) (step S10).
5).

The second personal computer 27 decodes the message information of the received mail and retrieves the abnormal code (steps S106 and S107), and the abnormality for each abnormal code stored in the database operating on the second personal computer 27. The cause is searched (step S108), and the recovery method is searched (step S109). By combining them, a message regarding the cause of abnormality and the recovery method is automatically created (step S110). When an email containing a message about the cause of the abnormality and the method of recovery is sent (step S11)
1), the first personal computer 25 receives the mail via the Internet (C) (step S112).

At the same time, the first mobile telephone 24 and the first
The mobile phone 26 of the above receives the mail via the Internet and the packet communication network (D) (step S1).
13).

The second personal computer 27 stores the data in the database.
The abnormality information received for each customer and device identification number, the cause of the abnormality returned, the recovery method, etc. are stored as an abnormality history (step 114).

If the service engineer is monitoring the second personal computer 27, the automatic reply function is temporarily disabled and the service engineer decodes the abnormality information and refers to the abnormality history in the database. It is also possible to compose and send back a message such as the cause of the abnormality and the method of recovery.

As described above, when the service engineer is monitoring the second personal computer, the service engineer can obtain necessary information from the second personal computer. And information about the restoration method, the second mobile phone 26 of the maintenance company.
May not be sent to.

If the person in charge of maintenance of the factory equipment can be surely notified of the information, both the first mobile phone 24 and the first personal computer 25 in the maintenance department will receive the abnormality information and the cause of the abnormality. It is not necessary to send information such as a restoration method, and information may be sent to only one of them.

In the remote failure diagnosis system shown in FIG. 1, the shear line drive control device 16 is provided with an abnormality detection device 17, a protocol converter 18, and a wireless transmitter 19 outside the shear line drive control device 16. Is not limited to
The abnormality detection device 1 is installed inside the shear line drive control device 16.
7, the protocol converter 18, and the wireless transmitter 19 may be provided.

As described above, in the remote fault diagnosis system of the present invention, when an abnormality is detected in the shear line drive control device, the person in charge of the maintenance department of the factory equipment is immediately notified of the abnormality detection information. The computer of the maintenance company immediately notifies the person in charge of the maintenance department of the factory equipment of the message about the cause of the abnormality and the restoration method.

Further, the present invention has the following advantages.
Since the packet communication network (for example, DoPa network packet communication service of NTT Docomo) has a wide communicable area, there are no restrictions on location conditions and high security, so there is no eavesdropping or interference. Further, since the charge is based on the amount of data to be transmitted, the communication fee is low, and it is not necessary to have a special server in-house just by contracting with a packet communication compatible provider.

[0040]

As described above, according to the remote fault diagnosis system of the present invention, when an abnormality occurs in the drive control device, the abnormality information is immediately notified to the maintenance department of the factory equipment and the maintenance company. Is automatically notified by e-mail, and the maintenance company immediately notifies the maintenance department of the factory equipment with a message regarding the cause of the abnormality and the method of restoration, so that quick restoration work can be performed.

Further, since the information can be sent to both the personal computer and the mobile phone by e-mail, the maintenance staff of the factory equipment can quickly and surely know the occurrence of the abnormality, the cause of the abnormality, and the restoration method. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a remote failure diagnosis system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram illustrating the operation of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Material Coil 2 Material 3 Pull Roll 4 Leveler or Slitter 5 Major Roll 6 Rotary Cutter 7, 9, 12, 15 Motor 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 Pulse Encoder (P
G) 16 Shearline drive control device 17 Abnormality detection device 18 Protocol converter 19 Wireless transmitter 20 Antenna 21 Packet communication network 22 Provider for packet communication 23 Internet 24 First mobile phone 25 First personal computer 26 Second mobile phone 27 Second PC

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI Theme Coat (reference) G06F 17/60 506 G06F 17/60 506 (72) Inventor Eiji Kanai 2-chome 23, Koura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa No. 4 F-term within Rockwell Automation Services Co., Ltd. (reference) 3C100 AA59 BB33 CC14 5C087 AA02 AA03 AA24 AA25 BB12 BB18 BB74 DD08 DD27 DD33 EE15 EE16 FF01 FF02 FF04 FF17 FF19 FF20 GG11 GG12GG67GG GG17 GG17 GG17 GG17 GG32 GG17 GG17 GG17

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A remote fault diagnosis system for notifying a maintenance department of a factory facility of a cause and a method of restoration of an abnormality of a drive control device of an industrial machine provided in a factory or the like, Anomaly detection means for detecting anomaly of the drive control device and creating anomaly information, and the anomaly information created by the anomaly detection means from a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like for maintenance of factory equipment via a packet communication network. Means for transmitting to the first mobile phone of the department in charge and transmitting to the first personal computer of the department in charge of maintenance of the factory equipment and the second personal computer of the contractor performing maintenance via the packet communication network and the Internet; The information about the cause of abnormality and the recovery method created by the second personal computer in response to the abnormal information is transmitted from the second personal computer to the Internet and the packet. Transmits to the first mobile phone via a signal network, remote diagnosis system characterized in that it comprises, means for transmitting to the first computer over the Internet. 2. A remote failure diagnosis system for notifying a maintenance department of factory equipment of a cause and a recovery method of an abnormality of a drive control device of an industrial machine provided in a factory or the like, An abnormality detection unit that detects abnormality of the drive control device and creates abnormality information, and the abnormality information created by the abnormality detection unit from a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like via a packet communication network and the Internet to factory equipment The first personal computer of the maintenance department of the above, means for transmitting to the second personal computer of the maintenance company, and information on the cause of abnormality and the recovery method created by the second personal computer in response to the abnormality information, A means for transmitting from a second personal computer to the first personal computer via the Internet, and a remote failure diagnosis system comprising: 3. A remote failure diagnosis system for notifying a maintenance department of a factory facility of a cause and a method of restoration of an abnormality in a drive control device of an industrial machine provided in a factory or the like, Anomaly detection means for detecting anomaly of the drive control device and creating anomaly information, and the anomaly information created by the anomaly detection means from a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like for maintenance of factory equipment via a packet communication network. A means for transmitting to the first mobile phone of the department in charge and transmitting to the second personal computer of the maintenance company through the packet communication network and the Internet, and created by the second personal computer in response to the abnormality information. A method of transmitting the information on the cause of the abnormality and the recovery method from the second personal computer to the first mobile phone via the Internet and the packet communication network. Remote diagnosis system comprising: a and. 4. A means for transmitting the abnormality information created by the abnormality detecting means from a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like to a second mobile phone of a maintenance company through a packet communication network, and the second means. The second personal computer further comprises means for transmitting the information on the cause of the abnormality and the restoration method from the second personal computer to the second mobile phone of a service provider who performs maintenance via the Internet and the packet communication network. The remote failure diagnosis system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. The second personal computer stores an abnormality cause and a restoration method for each abnormality information of the drive control device as a database, searches the database in response to the abnormality information, and causes the abnormality and restoration. The remote fault diagnosis system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein information about a method is created. 6. The abnormality information created by the abnormality detecting means is converted into a predetermined communication protocol by a protocol converter provided in the factory or the like, and a predetermined communication speed and transmission method are obtained by a wireless transmitter provided in the factory or the like. The remote fault diagnosis system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the remote fault diagnosis system is transmitted with transmission power to a packet communication network via an antenna. 7. The communication protocol of the abnormality information, the cause of the abnormality, and the information on the recovery method is SMTP in an E-mail format.
(Simple Mail Transfer Pro
The remote fault diagnosis system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the remote fault diagnosis system is a tocol). 8. The remote failure according to claim 1, wherein the drive control device is a shear line drive control device that continuously cuts a strip-shaped material into a predetermined length. Diagnostic system.