JPH0695723A - Remote diagnosis method for machine tool and its dealing - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restore a faulty user machine tool with correction data by making a terminal equipment of the machine tool gather diagnostic data according to the instruction from the service center of a maker and analyzing this data with a diagnosing computer of the maker to obtain the correction data. CONSTITUTION:A remote position 1 of the service center, a remote monitor position of a user office or the like, and a user machine position 3 are connected through modems 4, 5, and 6 with communication lines L1, L2, and L3 like telephone lines. If a fault of a machine tool M occurs, and alarm code number is transmitted to a maker diagnosing computer 10, and the diagnostic data gathering part of a management computer 21 in the machine position is operated by its instruction, and the diagnostic data result is transmitted to remote positions 1 and 2. On the side of the diagnosing computer 10, a maker analyzer himself or a machine state discriminating part 13 generates correction data on diagnostic by a data file 11 and a data operation part 12 and sends this data as a correction command.

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 It is a new remote diagnostic that runs between at least three locations on 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 object is to obtain a maintenance and diagnostic device that operates away from the machine tool site and therefore does not require personnel particularly skilled in diagnostic and maintenance procedures to be located at the machine tool site. . Another object is to obtain a remote operation diagnostic and maintenance device that has 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 device associated with a computer controlled machine tool 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 the machine work in a predetermined work sequence after each time interval and a device for comparing the work characteristics collected at different times to indicate a tendency of change or lack of change. Another object is to operate a machine tool in a predetermined work order, collect signals obtained from the machine tool over the work order, and parameters represented 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 with the design parameters for the machine.

The above object is the same as in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 2-55185, in which a management computer of a maker and a machine tool of a user are connected by a commercial communication line to perform periodic diagnosis,
Fault diagnosis and this repair are performed by remote control.

[0006]

However, the above-mentioned two known means have the following problems. 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 user operator must be on the side of the machine. In addition, there are many matters that the user operator makes decisions when executing automatic repair of the machine. Given the remote diagnosis of 24-hour unattended operation, it is not desirable for a supervisor to wait on the machine side only. It is desirable to be able to communicate remote diagnostics among at least three locations such as the manufacturer's service center (remote position), user machine position, user monitoring office or home (remote monitoring position). If the diagnostic computer of the service center and the user's machine tool terminal can be directly accessed, there is insufficient protection against malicious external disturbance (hacker). For such protection measures, it is desirable to create a system that allows users to monitor machines in offices.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned various problems, and its main purpose and object are to provide at least a service center (remote position of a manufacturer) for handling unattended operation for 24 hours and remote diagnosis. ), User machine position, user monitoring office / home (remote position) and at least three places (multiple places) for remote diagnostic communication.

A second object of the present invention is to take measures for protection against driving disturbance from the outside due to maliciousness or negligence, and to monitor the condition at a remote position apart from the machine side.

[0009]

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 are connected by a communication line such as a telephone, and the remote monitoring position The observer decides the remote diagnosis request to the remote location of the service center based on the alarm content of the abnormality transmitted from the user machine position, and receives the remote diagnosis from the remote monitoring location. Automatically creates a remote operation instruction data based on the alarm content and sends it to the user machine position.After that, the cause of failure is automatically detected by data collection at the user machine position, data comparison at the remote position, and mutual communication by judgment. A remote diagnosis method and device for a machine tool that notifies the remote monitoring position together with correction.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the occurrence of a machine tool failure and its content 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 remote cause of the failure is diagnosed. Can be requested immediately.

Further, based on the request from the remote monitoring position,
An analyst at the service center instructs the machine tool to execute diagnostic content that matches the alarm content from the machine tool, and causes the diagnostic data to be collected. This data is transmitted to the service center, where it is subjected to comparison calculation to generate modified data. By combining this correction data with the remote operation command when transmitting the correction data to the machine tool side, new data can be automatically corrected for the broken machine tool. These operations (procedures) can be continuously monitored at the user's remote monitoring position.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention.
[Fig. 3] is a flow chart showing its operating state.

First, the structure of the first invention of FIG. 1 will be described. The remote position indicated by 1 usually means the service center of the manufacturer and is the main body that executes the remote diagnosis. The remote monitoring position indicated by 2 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 indicated by 3 means a factory site including one to several machine tools M owned by the user, their peripheral devices, and terminals. The three remote locations are interconnected by a communication link containing telephone lines L 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. A dedicated communication line (RS232C or RS-42 instead of the above-mentioned telephone line
It is understood that 2) can be used.

At the remote position 1, the modem device 4 serves as a window for communication with other positions 2 and 3, and a data file for storing various diagnostic information regarding the machine tool M under the arithmetic processing function of the diagnostic computer 10. 11
And a data calculation unit 1 for comparing and processing the alarm code number of the machine tool M and the current diagnosis information transmitted from the machine position 3.
Turn on 2. The machine state determination unit 13 determines the current failure state of the machine tool M, its cause, and a treatment method based on the calculation result of the data calculation unit 12. Reference numeral 16 is a correction data transmission unit, which combines the correction data obtained from the determination result of the machine state determination unit 13 with a remote operation command,
It has a function of transmitting from the modem device 4 to the machine position 3 or the remote monitoring position 2 via the diagnostic computer 10, and automatically corrects the failure point. The diagnostic data collection control unit 16 has a function of controlling the diagnostic data collection unit 23 of the machine position 3 and the diagnostic program, and creates remote operation instruction data based on the alarm code number and other data from the machine position 3. .

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 O1 of the service center analyzes the machine state and corrects the correction point and the treatment method. Can be determined manually. The correction data based on the above determination result causes the diagnostic computer 10 to function by operating the keyboard 15.
It is transmitted to the machine position 3 or the remote monitoring position 2 via the modem device 4.

On the other hand, the machine position 3 is mainly composed of a machine tool M which is operated by an NC control device 20 and a control computer (not shown) which operates this operation program, and a management computer 21 is connected to the NC control device 20. When a remote operation command such as a failure or a periodic diagnosis is received from the remote position 1, the diagnostic program (including the self-diagnosis program) 22 is executed.

By the way, the execution of the above diagnostic program is as follows.
When an alarm is generated in the machine tool M, the monitoring computer 25 at the remote monitoring position 2 displays the content of the alarm, and this is started at the remote position 1 such as the service center of the manufacturer as an alarm code number or a voice call (conversation). The diagnostic computer 10 that has received this alarm code number causes the diagnostic program 18 and the diagnostic data collection control unit 19 to function, and transmits remote operation instruction data to the management computer 21 at the machine position 3 via the telephone line L ₁ to transmit the diagnostic program. 22 and run diagnostic data collection unit 2
3 is a component that functions to collect diagnostic data.

The diagnostic program 18 is a host program for data collection control, and has a data creation function for remote operation commands. Data transmission function. Data reception function. It has various data display functions. Also,
The diagnostic program 22 is a part of an application program for a machine tool management computer and has a remote operation command receiving function. Remote operation command activation function. Data collection function. Data transmission (automatic) function.
Includes self-diagnosis function.

The above-mentioned diagnostic data includes information for properly determining the cause of failure of the machine tool M, the status of failure, the location of failure, etc., and the data transmission unit 24 sends the remote position 1 or 2 via the modem device 5. Is transmitted to the modem device 4 or 6.
The diagnostic data directly transmitted to the modem device 4 causes each function of the remote position 1 to be created, but when transmitted to the remote monitoring position 2 which is the user's office, the modem device 6 causes the monitoring computer 25 to function. Let The operation of the monitoring computer 25 causes the CRT (26) to display the alarm occurrence and its content, and informs the operator (monitor) O2 of the user.

As described above, at the remote monitoring position 2, the machine tool M
The observer O2 monitors the machine position 3 for a failure and transmits alarm information such as a failure to the remote position 1 which is the manufacturer's service center via the telephone line L2.

The embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It should be noted that the above-mentioned flowchart is an explanation of the failure diagnosis, but it can also be applied to periodic diagnosis, quality control diagnosis and the like.

The "alarm occurrence" is issued from the NC control unit 20 at the machine position 3, and the "alarm content is remotely monitored at the remote monitoring position 2" via the management computer 21 and the modem units 5 and 6.
To the CRT (2)
6) Displayed as "Alarm content confirmation" (b) above. After that, when the observer O2 confirms that an alarm has occurred,
The telephone line L ₃ is used to connect the remote location 1 such as a service center to both modem devices 6 and 4, and "transmit alarm code to service center (remote location 1)" (c) is executed. still,
Instead of the alarm code, it is also possible to use a method of communicating the alarm contents by a call method. At this time, Observer O2 and Analyst O
Since 1 is connected to the telephone line by a telephone line, the communication is performed while interacting with each other by CRT and voice. The service center "determines the necessary diagnostic data based on the received alarm code number" (d) and causes the diagnostic program 18 and the diagnostic data collection control unit 19 to function to "remote operation command of the required diagnostic data to the user machine position 3". Is transmitted ”(e). Subsequently, "the user machine position executes a diagnostic program by a remote operation command" (f), and the diagnostic data collection unit 23 "collects diagnostic data of alarm code numbers".
Perform (g). When this diagnostic data collection is completed, it will be displayed on the CRT at the remote monitoring position 2 as well.
From the modem 5 "or" automatic transmission "from (h)
The telephone line L ₁ is connected to the modem 4 for data transmission. Then, "the diagnostic data of the alarm data is received at the remote position 1 such as the service center" (i) and stored in the memory connected to the diagnostic computer CPU (10). Then, the data calculation unit 12 performs the calculation process by "comparison check between data of data file and collected diagnostic data" (j). With this, the machine state determination unit 13 “determines the current machine alarm state” (k), and the correction data transmission unit 16 displays “correction data, treatment method, etc.” in the remote monitoring position 2 or machine position management computer or control device. Two
"Transmit to 0" (l). Here, the direct NC control device 20
If the correction data is to be transmitted to the controller, “NC controller data correction etc.” (m) is executed. If the data is transmitted to the remote monitoring position 2, “correction data received by the remote monitoring position 2 is transmitted to the machine position 3” (n). Prior to the transmission to the machine position 3, the observer O2 can examine the correction data, can check the relation of the correction data with respect to the alarm occurrence, and the observer O2 can collect the data for future alarm management. Can be implemented at a remote location. The examination of the correction data by the observer O2 is usually carried out while having a dialogue (voice and data) with the analyst O1 of the service center through the telephone line L ₂ . "Data correction of NC controller"
After (m), "alarm release / restart operation" (p) is executed.

Next, protective measures against driving disturbance from the outside due to malicious intent or negligence are implemented as described below. 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, etc., 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.

Therefore, even if a third party intrudes into the machine position computer, it can be immediately recognized at the remote monitoring position 2 and necessary action can be taken. It is possible to prevent the damage from spreading.
In these telephone line fields, it is thought that it will be possible to take even quicker actions by adding technology for simultaneous use of multiple-position simultaneous data communication, which is typified by the three-way conversation that has already been realized. To be The plural-position simultaneous communication means simultaneous communication of one-to-two or more 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, or a plurality of remote positions. Are connected to each other by a communication line typified by a telephone line network, in which the machine position management computer data and N
By collecting and restoring C control data, it becomes possible to know the contents of communication between remote positions represented by service centers, machine positions, user monitoring positions, etc. at any position. It becomes possible to prevent the operation interference of the machine tool caused by. From this point of view, the invention of the remote diagnosis system based on the communication of a plurality of remote positions limited to two remote positions of the present application has its importance.

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 treatment thereof of the present invention, at least the remote of the manufacturer's service center (remote position), user machine position, user monitoring office, home, etc. (remote monitoring position). Since communication is possible, the supervisor can perform various kinds of monitoring at a remote location such as a monitoring office or home away from the machine side, remote diagnosis when a failure occurs, and can also support unmanned operation for 24 hours. 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 according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,3 remote location, the remote monitoring position 2 machine position 4-6 modem device L ₁ ~L ₃ telephone lines O1 analysis membered O2 warden 10,21,25 diagnostic computer, the management computer, the monitoring computer 11 data file 12 data calculating unit 13 Machine status determination unit 14, 26 CRT display 18, 22 Diagnostic program 19 Diagnostic data collection control unit 20 NC control device M Machine tool 16 Correction data transmission unit 23 Diagnostic data collection unit 24 Data transmission unit

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] December 4, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be corrected] Drawing

[Correction target item name] All drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Figure 1]

[Fig. 2]

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical indication H04M 11/00 302 8627-5K

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A remote location as a service center, a remote monitoring location such as a user office, and at least three locations of a user machine location are connected by a communication line such as a telephone, and the monitoring staff at the remote monitoring location The analyst at the remote location of the service center receives the remote diagnosis from the remote monitoring location, decides the remote diagnostic request to the remote location of the service center based on the alarm content of the abnormality occurrence sent from the user machine location Based on the above, remote operation instruction data is created and transmitted to the user machine position, and thereafter, the failure diagnosis is automatically corrected by mutual communication by data collection at the user machine position and data comparison / judgment at the remote position. At the same time, a remote diagnosis method for machine tools is characterized by notifying to a remote monitoring position. 2. A computer or machine for managing a user machine position by connecting at least three positions of a remote location, which is a service center, a remote monitoring location such as a user office, and a user machine location, by a communication line such as a telephone. The attached control computer transmits the alarm content of the abnormality occurrence to the remote position or the remote monitoring position of the service center, and receives the alarm content directly or via the remote monitoring position. The diagnostic data collection control unit selects diagnostic data necessary for diagnostic collection corresponding to the alarm content, creates remote operation instruction data for the management computer at the machine position, and further transmits the data to the management computer to start up. The management computer has a function of collecting data, and A diagnostic data collection unit that collects diagnostic data for the current state diagnosis (including self-diagnosis) based on the operation instruction, and a data transmission unit that sends the diagnostic data to a diagnostic computer of the service center. The computer is equipped with a machine state determination unit that manually or automatically compares and processes the diagnostic data and the data in the data file to generate correction data manually or automatically, and the correction data is transmitted to the machine tool at the machine position by an appropriate remote operation command. A remote diagnosis device for machine tools, comprising: a correction data transmission unit for transmitting the same as above, and terminating fault diagnosis and repair by mutual transmission between the three positions.