JPH06149330A - Remote diagnostic method for machine tool and device therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To complete the diagnosis and the recovery by a single reciprocative transmitting action as a proper correction command given to a machine tool from a user by adding a diagnostic program and its analyzing function to a terminal equipment of the machine tool and by sending immediately the analyzing result of the program to a computer for the detailed analysis of the analyzing result. CONSTITUTION:A remote position 1 of a service center, a remote position 2 of a user business office, etc., and a user machine side 3 are connected to each other via the telephone circuits L1, L2 and L3 of the modem 4, 5 and 6 respectively. A machine tool M of the side 3 is provided with a diagnostic program 22 and a diagnostic data collecting part 23. Thus the fault of the machine M is diagnosed and this diagnostic result is sent to both positions 1 and 2. A data computing part 12 of a data file 11 and a machine state deciding part 13 produce the correction data based on the diagnostic result received by a diagnostic computer CPU 10 of a maker. Then the correction data are sent to the machine M of a user as a proper correction command. Thus the diagnosis and the recovery are complete just by a single reciprocative transmitting action.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to N owned by a user.
C-related Machine tool failure diagnosis (including periodic diagnosis, quality control diagnosis, etc.) Remote diagnosis by connecting the manufacturer's service center and the user machine tool via a telephone line, etc. Manufacturer, user office, user A novel remote diagnostic method and apparatus for executing between at least three positions of a machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A fault diagnosis management computer owned by a manufacturer's service center and a user's machine tool or its terminal are connected by a telephone line, and a remote location is provided by transmitting information on the user machine tool's fault diagnosis and periodic diagnosis. Remote diagnosis technology for machine tool failure diagnosis and repair is disclosed in JP-B-60-40043 and JP-B2-55185.
Issued in issue.

The above remote diagnosis technique is disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 60-4.
As seen in No. 0043, its main purpose is to operate the machine tool in a predetermined order to monitor the workability of the machine tool and to compare the corresponding characteristics previously collected for the same machine with these characteristics. Compared with the working characteristics of
The aim is to provide a systematic method and apparatus for predicting early abnormalities prior to occurrence by indicating the extent of change and recognizing trends in these characteristics.

Another purpose is a machine tool site.
Is to obtain a maintenance and diagnostics device that operates away from and therefore does not require personnel particularly skilled in diagnostics and maintenance procedures to be located at the machine tool site. Another object is to obtain a remote operation diagnostic and maintenance device with the ability to compare the parameters collected over a relatively long period of time with the parameters of the current machine. , Another object is a computer-controlled machine tool-related device for maintaining a record of machine tool performance characteristics collected at widely spaced time intervals to indicate a history of machine tool performance characteristics, To obtain a device for making a machine tool work in a predetermined work sequence after each time interval and a device for comparing work characteristics collected at different times to indicate a tendency of change or lack of change. . , Another purpose is to cause a machine tool to work in a predetermined work sequence, collect signals obtained from the machine tool over the work sequence, and express by the collected signal, with respect to a computer-controlled machine tool. To obtain a method of performing preventive maintenance including the step of analyzing the performance of the machine by comparing the parameters performed with the design parameters for the machine. The above-mentioned purpose is the same as in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 2-55185, in which a manufacturer's management computer and a user's machine tool are connected by a commercial communication line, and periodic diagnosis, failure diagnosis and this repair are executed by remote control. is there.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned two known means have the following problems. When a user's machine tool has a failure or a request for periodic diagnosis, the user contacts the manufacturer to collect the failure or periodic diagnosis information of the user's machine tool from a management computer that has a failure or periodic diagnosis program. Is again sent to the management computer of the manufacturer for automatic analysis, and the analysis result is sent again to the user terminal device for restoration, so the number of communications between the manufacturer and the user becomes excessive. From the viewpoint of accelerating the diagnosis, the user's machine tool is equipped with a diagnostic program and this analysis function, and the analysis result is immediately sent to the manufacturer's management computer to analyze the details, and the user's machine tool can receive an appropriate correction command. As a result, it is desirable to complete the repair with one round trip. The terminal (management computer) provided on the side of the user machine is usually arranged on the side of the machine in such a way that one or several machines are integrated, and the operator on the user side must be on the side of the machine. In addition, there are many decisions that a user operator must make when performing automatic machine repair.

In order to efficiently carry out the above-mentioned diagnosis and automatic repair in a 24-hour system, the operator automates the monitoring at a remote location such as a monitoring office or home away from the machine side and the remote diagnosis when a failure occurs. Or it is desirable that it can be done through the judgment of the operator. Given the remote diagnosis in 24 hours unattended operation, it is not desirable for the operator to wait on the side of the machine. It is desirable to be able to perform remote communication between at least three locations such as the manufacturer's service center (remote location), user machine location, user monitoring office or home (remote monitoring location), or more. If there is direct access between the diagnostic computer of the service center and the user's machine tool terminal, the protection measures against malicious driving disturbance (hacker) from the outside are not sufficient. For such protection measures, it is desirable to create a system that allows users to monitor machines in offices. That is, it is important to monitor the state at a remote position apart from the machine side for remote diagnosis when some kind of failure occurs.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above various problems, and the main object of the present invention is to provide a diagnostic program and its analysis function in a terminal device of a user's machine tool, and to provide the analysis result. Is immediately sent to the manufacturer's management computer for detailed analysis, and the machine tool of the user is sent as a proper correction command in one round trip to complete diagnosis and repair.

A second object of the present invention is to provide at least a service center (remote position) of the manufacturer, a user machine position, and a remote machine in order to cope with remote diagnosis as well as unmanned operation for 24 hours.
The purpose is to perform remote diagnosis communication between at least three locations (multiple locations) such as a user monitoring office and home (remote location).

A third object of the present invention is that the diagnostic data collection control unit is located at the machine position. Therefore, in addition to taking protective measures against driving disturbance from the outside due to maliciousness or negligence, it is also possible to provide a remote position away from the machine side unit. To monitor the condition.
(However, when the machine position computer receives repair data and the like together with a remote operation instruction from a remote location such as a service center, it is necessary to take protective measures using conventional technology.)

[0010]

The first aspect of the present invention is to provide a communication line such as a telephone between at least three positions of a remote position which is a service center, a remote monitoring position such as a user office, and a user machine position. A remote diagnosis method is provided in which the user machine is monitored and the diagnostic repair work is performed mainly by the dialogue between at least the remote supervisor of the user and the analyst of the remote location of the service center.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, at least three positions of a remote position which is a service center, a remote monitoring position of a user office or the like and a user machine position are connected by a communication line such as a telephone and the machine position. The management computer is equipped with a diagnostic program for executing a fault diagnosis and a diagnostic data collection unit. The diagnostic result data is transmitted to the remote monitoring position, and the diagnostic data sent to the diagnostic computer of the service center is stored in a data file. Correction data transmission that includes a machine state determination unit that manually or automatically compares data with the data and manually or automatically generates correction data, and transmits the above correction data to the machine tool at the machine position with appropriate remote operation commands. And a remote diagnosis device for a machine tool that completes failure diagnosis and repair with one round trip transmission between the three positions described above. .

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the occurrence of a machine tool failure and its contents can be immediately known at the remote monitoring position, and if necessary, the remote location of the service center is notified by a telephone line or the like, and the cause of the failure is remote. The diagnosis can be requested immediately. Furthermore, protection against external driving disturbances due to malice or negligence can also be provided at the remote monitoring location.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when a failure occurs in a machine tool, the content is transmitted to a remote monitoring position of a user or a remote position of a service center, and at the same time, a management computer and a diagnostic program provided in the machine tool. Accident diagnosis data is collected. This diagnostic data is sent to the service center over a communication line, where a diagnostic computer analyzes the diagnostic data to generate machine correction data. This is transmitted to the machine tool, and the fault location is diagnosed and repaired by sending only one round trip.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation state.

First, the configuration of the invention of FIG. 1 will be described. 1
The remote position indicated by means the service center of the manufacturer, which is the main body that executes the remote diagnosis. Two
The remote monitoring position indicated by means a place away from the user's own machine tool M and the remote position 1, such as a user's monitoring office or home. The machine position (hereinafter referred to as the machine side) indicated by 3 means a factory site including one to several machine tools M owned by the user, their peripheral devices, and terminals. Between the above three remote locations, telephone line L
They are interconnected by a communication link containing ₁ , L ₂ , L ₃ and modem devices 4, 5, 6. With this, it is possible to simultaneously transmit data or voice and drawing information in both directions between the three remote positions 1, 2, and 3. Dedicated communication line (RS23
2C, RS-422) can be utilized.
Also, the above three remote locations can be added to multiple locations of three or more.

At the remote location 1, the modem device 4
Serves as a window for communication with other positions 2 and 3, and under the arithmetic processing function of the diagnostic computer 10, a data file 11 for storing various diagnostic information regarding the machine tool M and a machine transmitted from the machine side 3. The data calculation unit 12 that performs comparison processing with the current diagnosis information of the machine M is operated. The machine state determination unit 13 determines the current failure state of the machine tool M, its cause, and the treatment method based on the calculation result of the data calculation unit 12. 16 is a modified data transmission unit,
It has a function of combining the correction data obtained from the determination result of the machine state determination unit 13 with the remote operation command and transmitting it from the modem device 4 to the machine side 3 or the remote monitoring position 2 via the diagnostic computer 10. In addition, the contents of the data calculation unit 12 are displayed on the CRT (14) without going through the machine state determination unit 13, and the analyst 01 of the service center analyzes the machine state to determine a correction location and a treatment method. It is also possible. The corrected data based on the above determination result is transmitted to the machine side 3 or the remote monitoring position 2 via the modem device 4 by operating the management computer 10 by operating the keyboard 15.

On the other hand, the machine side 3 has an NC control unit 20 and a machine tool M functioning according to this operation program as a main part, and a management computer 21 is connected to the NC control unit 20 to receive commands such as failure and periodic diagnosis. And the diagnostic program 22 are executed. The diagnostic program 22 has many contents such as a failure due to an alarm and a regular diagnosis, and collects necessary data in the diagnostic data collecting unit 23. This diagnostic data includes information appropriately diagnosing the cause of the failure of the machine tool M, the failure situation, the failure location, etc., and the data transmission unit 24 via the modem device 5 the modem device 4 at the remote position 1 or 2. Or 6 is transmitted. The diagnostic data directly transmitted to the modem device 4 activates each function of the remote position 1, but when transmitted to the remote monitoring position 2 which is an office of the user, the modem device 6 causes the control computer 25 to operate. Make it work. By the operation of this control computer 25, the CRT
The alarm occurrence and its contents, diagnostic data, etc. are displayed in (26) and the operator (monitor) 02 of the user is notified. The operator 02 confirms various displays on the CRT (26) and determines whether to run the diagnostic program 22 again to newly collect diagnostic data or to transmit the diagnostic data to the remote position 1. As described above, the operator 02 who monitors the machine tool M at the remote monitoring position 2 monitors the machine side 3 for failure diagnosis and the remote position 1 which is the manufacturer's service center.
Alarm information such as fault diagnosis data to the remote locations 1, 2 and 3 can be transmitted via the telephone line L ₂ .
3 is connected.

Next, the operating state of the above-mentioned embodying apparatus will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. Although the flowchart describes the failure diagnosis, it can be applied to periodic diagnosis, quality control diagnosis, and the like.

The "alarm occurrence" is issued from the NC control device 20 on the machine side 3, is "transmitted to the remote position 2" (alarm content) via the management computer 21, the modem devices 5 and 6, and is CRT ( 26) displayed above. After this, an operator O ₂ command to collect failure diagnosis data or
By the self-management program of the management computer 21,
"Data collection of alarm contents in NC controller"
Execute (b). When this data collection program ends, it is also displayed on the CRT at the remote monitoring position 2 and the telephone line L ₁ is connected from the modem 5 to the modem 4 by "Transmission command or automatic transmission from the remote monitoring position 2" (c). Then, the data is transmitted. Then, the alarm data is received at the remote location 1 such as a service center (d) and stored in the memory of the diagnostic computer 10. Then, "Check of data in data file and collection of alarm data"
According to (e), the data calculation unit 12 performs calculation processing. With this, the machine state determination unit 13 "determines the current machine alarm state" (f), and the correction data transmission unit 16 "remotes the correction data and the treatment method to the remote monitoring position 2 or the management computer 21 on the machine side. Transmit with operation command "
(G) Here, if necessary, the NC controller 2
If the correction data is to be transmitted to 0, "NC controller data correction etc." (h) is executed. Further, if the data is transmitted to the remote monitoring position 2, "send the received data of the remote monitoring position 2 to the machine side 3" (re). Prior to the transmission to the machine side 3, the operator O ₂ can examine the correction data, can confirm the relationship of the correction data with respect to the alarm occurrence, and the operator O ₂ can collect data for future alarm management. It can be carried out at a remote monitoring position. The examination of the correction data by the operator O ₂ normally proceeds while having a conversation with the analyst O _{1 of the} service center through the telephone line L ₂ . After "correction of data of NC controller" (h),
"Alarm reset operation restart" (nu) will be executed.

The diagnostic program 22 is a part of an application program for a machine tool management computer and has a function of receiving a remote operation command. Remote operation command activation function. Data collection function. Data transmission (automatic) function. Includes self-diagnosis function.

Next, protective measures against external driving disturbance due to maliciousness or negligence are implemented as described below. In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1, an internal diagnostic function based on the management computer 21 on the machine side 3, the diagnostic program 22 and the diagnostic data collecting unit 23 of the machine side 3 performs a self-diagnostic action on a failure location. Therefore, the telephone line L ₁ ~
Even if a third party invades the management computer 21 via L ₃ and tries to disturb the diagnostic content, a protective function that excludes diagnostics other than the diagnostic program and does not change the diagnostic program works, and the diagnostic function is not destroyed. . This will not be accepted even if the operator in the user gives an erroneous diagnosis command due to an error.

More specifically, even if a machine position computer is intruded by a third party,
It can be immediately recognized at the remote monitoring position 2.
You can take necessary actions against it and prevent the spread of damage.

Although it is limited to voice in the field of telephone line communication, more rapid action can be taken by adding technology for simultaneous use of multi-position simultaneous data communication typified by already realized three-way conversation. It is possible that you will be able to take. The plural-position simultaneous communication means simultaneous communication of one-to-two or more positions or a plurality of remote positions using a telephone line communication network between a remote position 1 of a service center and a remote position 2 of a machine position and a user monitoring position. Representatives of service centers, machine positions, user monitoring positions, etc. by connecting to each other by communication lines typified by telephone lines, etc., and collecting and repairing the data in the machine position management computer or NC control data The communication between remote positions can be known at any position, and it becomes possible to prevent the operation interference of the machine tool due to maliciousness or negligence. From this point of view, the invention of the remote diagnosis system based on the communication of a plurality of remote positions, which is not limited to the two remote positions of the present application, has its importance.

On the other hand, by newly establishing the remote monitoring position 2, it is possible to monitor the situation such as the occurrence of a failure on the machine side 3, diagnostic data collection, automatic repair, and to interact with the remote position 1 which is the manufacturer's service center. . This enables a 24-hour monitoring system at the remote monitoring position 2 for the machine side 3.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the number of machine tools is not limited to one, but several or more machines can be targeted, and an application example as a remote diagnostic system for a plurality of factories and a plurality of users is included.

[0026]

As described above, according to the remote diagnosis method and the apparatus thereof of the present invention, the terminal device of the user's machine tool is provided with the diagnosis program and its analysis function, and the analysis result is immediately sent to the manufacturer's management computer for detailed analysis. However, there is an effect that diagnosis and repair can be completed by sending one round trip as an appropriate correction command to the user's machine tool.

Since at least the manufacturer service center (remote position), the user machine position, the user monitoring office, the home (remote monitoring position) and the like (remote monitoring position) can perform remote communication, the operator can monitor away from the machine side. Various types of monitoring can be performed at remote locations such as offices and homes, remote diagnosis can be performed when a failure occurs, and 24-hour unmanned operation can also be supported. Further, there is an effect that the condition can be monitored at a remote position apart from the machine side part in order to take a protective measure against an external driving disturbance caused by maliciousness or negligence.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a remote diagnosis device for a machine tool of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,3 remote location, the remote monitoring position 2 user machine position 4-6 modem device L ₁ ~L ₃ telephone line 01 Analysis membered 02 operator (warden) 10,21,25 diagnostic computer, the management computer, the control computer 11 data file 12 data calculation unit 13 machine state determination unit 14, 26 CRT display 22 diagnostic program 20 NC controller M machine tool 16 correction data transmission unit 23 diagnostic data collection unit 24 data transmission unit

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] October 19, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 1]

[Fig. 2]

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A remote location, which is a service center, a remote monitoring location such as a user office, and a user machine location, are connected by at least three locations through a communication line such as a telephone, and at least the remote monitoring location of the user. A remote diagnosis method for a machine tool, which is characterized in that a user machine is monitored and a diagnostic repair work is performed mainly by a dialogue between an observer and an analyst at a remote location of a service center. 2. A remote location, which is a service center, a remote monitoring location such as a user office, and a user machine location, are connected by at least three locations through a communication line such as a telephone, and the machine location management computer is out of order. A diagnostic program for executing diagnostics and a diagnostic data collection unit are provided, and the diagnostic data is transmitted to the remote monitoring position, and the diagnostic data sent to the diagnostic computer of the service center is manually or automatically compared with the data in the data file. A machine state determination unit for performing arithmetic processing to manually or automatically generate correction data, and a correction data transmission unit for transmitting the correction data to the machine tool at the machine position together with the remote operation command, A remote diagnosis device for a machine tool, wherein failure diagnosis and repair are completed by one round trip transmission between three positions.