JPH07166582A - Maintenance system for work machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform efficient maintenance by dispensing with a maintenance man to be dispatched to the site each time a trouble occurs on a work machine. CONSTITUTION:When the occurrence of a trouble on a work machine is reported, a control section 1 instructs the drive of the work machine, and the data related to the trouble are sent by this drive via the operation controller 21 of a controller 2 on the work machine side, a communication controller 23, a transceiver 24, antennas 241, 41, a relay station 4, an exchange station 3, a transceiver 13, a communication controller 12, and a control section computer 11. The value to resolve the trouble within the set values stored in the memory 21M of the controller 2 is determined based on the data. This value is sent to the operation controller 21 through the opposite communication path together with the rewriting signal, and the prescribed data of the memory 21M are rewritten. The dispatch of a maintenance man is not required.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a working machine maintenance system for performing required maintenance on working machines such as hydraulic excavators, cranes and bulldozers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in many work machines, drive control using a computer has been adopted in order to perform more accurate and appropriate work. Therefore, when a problem occurs in such a working machine, the operator of the working machine cannot repair or adjust it, and a maintenance staff with specialized knowledge will do so. In this case, the operator calls the service base (management section) that performs maintenance to explain the status of the problem, and the management section considers this and decides the content of repair and adjustment, and the maintenance staff from the management section performs the work. It goes to the machine and repairs and adjusts according to the decided contents.

[0003]

Generally, the working machine described above is often used in a severe condition, and the parts of the machine are heavily worn. Therefore, the above-mentioned requests for repairs and adjustments are made quite frequently, and the maintenance personnel go to the requested working machine each time. By the way, there are various kinds of malfunctions of the working machine, but there are many malfunctions that can be corrected by simple adjustment, such as a decrease in front speed due to aging, mismatch of operation feeling of individual actuators forming the front, and the like. However, even in such a case, the maintenance staff will be dispatched to the work machine, and especially when the work site is remote from the management department, it takes a long time to reciprocate, which improves the work efficiency of the maintenance staff. Lower and increase its effort. For this reason, it was necessary to always secure a considerable number of maintenance personnel in the management department.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, to provide an efficient maintenance system, and to provide a maintenance system for a working machine capable of suppressing an increase in maintenance personnel. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a work machine whose operation is controlled on the basis of preset data, in which the data can be rewritten on the work machine side. And a work machine side transmitting / receiving means for transmitting / receiving data to / from the outside, and a management side transmitting / receiving means for transmitting / receiving various data to / from the work machine side transmitting / receiving means on the management side for managing the work machine. Means, a reception data storage unit for receiving and storing the operating state data of the work machine via the management unit side transmission / reception unit, and the management unit side transmission / reception unit based on the data stored in the reception data storage unit, Data rewriting means for rewriting required data among the data stored in the storage section on the work machine side via the work machine side transmitting / receiving means is provided. And butterflies.

According to the present invention, in addition to the above configuration, drive management means for driving the work machine in a predetermined pattern to collect the operation state data of the work machine may be provided on the management section side. Characterize.

[0007]

When the operator of the work machine notifies the operator of the malfunction, the management section drives the operator to drive the work machine, and the necessary operation state data obtained by this driving is collected by the management section side transmitting / receiving means to receive data. Stored in the storage unit, examine the contents of repair and adjustment based on the operating state data, and store the work machine through the management unit side transmitting / receiving unit and the working machine side transmitting / receiving unit by the data rewriting unit according to the examination result. Rewrite the required data (setting value) stored in the department.

When the drive command means is provided, the management section causes the work machine to perform a necessary operation by the drive command means based on the contact contents of the operator, and receives the operating state data necessary for the adjustment. Collect in data storage.

[0009]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a maintenance system for a work machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a management unit, 2 is a work machine control unit, 3 is a telephone line switching station, and 4 is a wireless relay station. T indicates a telephone line. The management unit 1 includes a management unit computer 11 that performs various processes and analyzes related to maintenance management, and a communication controller 1 that controls data transfer.
2, a telephone line transceiver (telephone) 13, and a data recording unit 14 for recording transmitted data and the like. The data recording unit 14 stores the telephone numbers, ID codes, and the like of each work machine under its control, in addition to the above data.
The data at the time of shipment of each work machine, various setting data, etc. are stored.

The control unit 2 of the work machine controls the drive of the work machine, the operation controller 21 that collects data and the like detected by various sensors and measuring instruments provided in the work machine, and a memory that stores the collected data. It comprises a unit 22, a communication controller 23 for controlling data exchange, a wireless transceiver (mobile phone) 24, and a data extraction instructing unit 25 for instructing data to be transmitted to the management unit 1. 21M indicates a memory of the operation controller 21, and E
A rewritable memory such as an EPROM is used, and stores data (setting values) that determines various operating characteristics. Further, reference numeral 241 is an antenna of the transceiver 24 that performs wireless communication with the antenna 41 of the relay station 4. Further, the communication controller 23 stores the telephone number of the management unit 1 that controls the work machine.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a hydraulic excavator equipped with the control unit 2 shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, 5 indicates a hydraulic excavator. Reference numeral 50 denotes a lower traveling body which travels by a hydraulic motor, 5
1 is an engine, hydraulic pump, hydraulic piping, power battery,
An upper revolving structure in which a driver's cab 511 and the like are installed, and 52 is a front mechanism including a boom 521, an arm 522, and a bucket 523. The control unit 2 shown in FIG. 1 is arranged, for example, in the operator's cab 511, and the antenna 241 is provided on the roof of the operator's cab 511.

Next, the case where the driving speed of the arm 522 of the hydraulic excavator 5 is reduced due to secular change will be described as an example.
Adjustment using the management system shown in FIG. 1 in this case will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a part of the hydraulic circuit of the hydraulic excavator 5. In this figure, 21 is an operation controller of the control unit 2 shown in FIG. Reference numeral 601 is a variable displacement hydraulic pump (hereinafter simply referred to as hydraulic pump), 601a is a variable displacement mechanism for the hydraulic pump 601 (hereinafter represented by a swash plate), 602 is a hydraulic cylinder for tilting the swash plate 601a, and 603. , 604 are solenoid valves for driving the hydraulic cylinder 602. Reference numeral 605A is an arm cylinder for driving the arm 522, 606A is a switching valve for controlling the driving of the arm cylinder 605A, 607A is a pressure compensating valve interposed between the hydraulic pump 601 and the switching valve 606A, and 608A is a check valve. Reference numeral 605B is a hydraulic actuator other than the arm 522, for example, a boom cylinder that drives the boom 521, 606B is a switching valve thereof, 607B is a pressure compensation valve, and 608B is a check valve. Reference numeral 609 is a relief valve that regulates the maximum pressure of the hydraulic circuit, 611 is a pilot pump, and 612 is a relief valve that regulates the maximum pressure of the pilot circuit.

Reference numeral 614 denotes a shuttle valve that selects the larger pressure (maximum load pressure) of the load pressures of the arm cylinder 605A and the boom cylinder 605B, and 615 detects the differential pressure between the hydraulic pump 601 and the maximum load pressure. It is a differential pressure sensor. Reference numeral 616A is a proportional solenoid valve for controlling the operation of the pressure compensation valve 607A, 616B is a proportional solenoid valve for controlling the operation of the pressure compensation valve 607B, and the pilot pressure controlled by them is respectively the pressure compensation valve 607A, It is added to one pilot port of 607B.

When the switching valve 606A is switched, the oil discharged from the hydraulic pump 601 is supplied to the arm cylinder 605A and the arm cylinder 605A is driven. At this time, the operation controller 21 controls the tilting of the swash plate 601a and the pressure compensating valve 607A via the solenoid valves 603 and 604 and the hydraulic cylinder 602 in accordance with the differential pressure detected by the differential pressure sensor 615, and before and after the switching valve 606A. The differential pressure is maintained at a specified value, and thereby the arm cylinder 605A is driven at a speed according to the switching amount of the switching valve 606A. The boom cylinder 605B is similarly driven. Also, arm cylinder 605A
Hydraulic pump 6 during combined operation of boom and cylinder 605B
The pressure oil of 01 is divided into both, but the distribution of the flow rates thereof is determined by the opening degree of the pressure compensation valves 607A and 607B, and the opening degrees thereof are proportional solenoid valves 616A and 616.
It is determined by the pilot pressure of the pressure compensation valves 607A and 607B applied by B. Since such control is known as load sensing control, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram of the output pressure ΔP _C of the proportional solenoid valve 616A with respect to the differential pressure ΔP detected by the differential pressure sensor 615. In this figure, ΔP _C1 indicated by the solid line is the characteristic set in the memory 21M of the operation controller 21, and ΔP _C1max indicates the maximum value of the value ΔP _C. As shown, the pilot pressure ΔP _C output from the proportional solenoid valve 616A is proportional to the detected differential pressure ΔP.

The operator of the hydraulic excavator 5 moves the arm 5
When the operator notices that the driving speed of 22 has decreased, the operator uses the transceiver 24 to report this to the management unit 1 to request repair or adjustment. The management unit 1 has an arm 522 for the operator.
To send the data. In response to this, when the operator drives the arm cylinder 605A from the most contracted state to the most extended state of the rod (or in the opposite direction), the load pressure data with respect to time of the arm cylinder 605A generated by this drive is calculated. The data is collected by the controller 21, collected in the data recording unit 14 via the communication controller 23, the transceiver 24 antennas 241, 41, the relay station 4, the exchange 3 transceiver 13, the communication controller 12, and the management computer 11.

The maintenance staff of the management section 1 knows the speed of the arm cylinder 605A from the data collected in the data recording section 14, and refers to this to set the differential pressure specified in the switching valve 606A of the arm cylinder 605A. The value is changed so that the speed of the arm cylinder 605A increases. This change is made by changing the characteristics shown in FIG.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the preset characteristic ΔP _C1 shown by the solid line is changed to a new characteristic ΔP _C2 shown by the broken line. or,
At the same time, the differential pressure characteristics of the boom cylinder, the bucket cylinder, or both are changed in consideration of the combined operation.

The change of this characteristic is performed by the management unit computer 1.
1 is issued by the communication controller 12,
Transceiver 13, switching center 3, relay station 4, antennas 41, 2
41, the transceiver 24, and the communication controller 23 to input to the operation controller 21,
On the basis of this, the data of the corresponding portion of the memory 21M is changed according to the command. The above command is composed of a rewrite signal for the rewritable memory 21M, an address at which each characteristic is stored, and data to be rewritten. In this case, the new data to be rewritten has a linear changed characteristic. Therefore, the maximum value Δ of the characteristic ΔP _C2 indicated by the broken line in FIG.
P _C2max .

After rewriting the set value as described above, when the operator operates the switching valve 606A, the oil discharged from the hydraulic pump 601 is supplied to the arm cylinder 605A, and the operation controller 21 responds to the differential pressure detected by the differential pressure sensor 615. The tilting of the swash plate 601a and the pressure compensation valve 607A are controlled via the solenoid valves 603 and 604 and the hydraulic cylinder 602.
In this case, the pilot pressure applied to the pressure compensating valve 607A becomes lower than the pressure before the change, the pressure compensating valve 607A is in a state where more pressure oil flows, and the arm cylinder 60
Increase speed of 5A.

As described above, in the present embodiment, a rewritable memory such as an EEPROM is used as a memory for storing the set value of the hydraulic excavator, and a malfunction of the hydraulic excavator, for example, a decrease in the speed of the arm as described above is prevented. Since the setting value on the work machine side can be rewritten from the management side, it is possible to eliminate the need for maintenance personnel to go to the site to make adjustments, which significantly improves the work efficiency of maintenance personnel. It is possible to suppress the increase in the number of maintenance personnel. On the other hand, on the hydraulic excavator side, the time for waiting for the arrival of maintenance personnel is saved, so that the work efficiency can be significantly improved.

In the above description of the embodiment, the decrease of the arm speed is described as an example, but the invention is not limited to this, and it is obvious that various problems can be dealt with. For example, in the combined operation of several hydraulic actuators, even if the operation is different from the desired operation as a whole,
This defect can be adjusted. In this case, the management unit 1 causes the operator to perform the above-described composite operation of the work machine, collects the required data, inputs this data to the management unit computer 11, and determines which hydraulic actuator speed of each hydraulic actuator is used. Therefore, the data may be rewritten according to the analysis.

In the case of the above composite operation, the operator may perform the composite operation of the work machine, but the composite operation may be performed from the management section 1 side by using the system shown in FIG. The operation in this case will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a stroke amount pattern of the boom lever stroke, the arm lever stroke, and the turning lever stroke with respect to time in the combined operation of the boom 521, the arm 522, and the upper swing body 51. When the operator is informed of a malfunction when performing a combined operation of the boom, arm, and swing, the management unit 1 notifies the operator that the hydraulic excavator will be driven, and takes measures to prevent danger in advance. Ask to leave.

Next, the management unit 1 inputs the data of the pattern shown in FIG. 5 to the management unit computer 11, and the communication controller 12, the transceiver 13, the exchange 3, the relay station 4, the antennas 41 and 241, the transceiver. 24, communication controller 2
Transmission to the operation controller 21 via 3 (time division transmission)
To do. The operation controller 21 operates each corresponding switching valve based on the transmitted data, and causes the hydraulic excavator to actually perform the combined operation. During this composite operation, required data (for example, response time of each hydraulic actuator, response speed, etc.) is stored in the storage unit 22 via the operation controller 21, and the data is stored in the reverse route after the composite operation is completed. After that, the data is recorded in the data recording unit 14 of the management unit 1. The management computer 11 analyzes the points to be adjusted based on the recorded data, and rewrites the required set value among the set values set in the memory 21M. It is needless to say that such driving of the work machine from the management unit side can be performed not only during a combined operation but also as a single operation.

As described above, when operating the hydraulic excavator from the management side, the operator's operation load is eliminated,
Further, the management unit can surely collect the data required for the analysis.

In the description of the above embodiment, a hydraulic excavator was illustrated as an example of the working machine, but it is obvious that it can be applied to other working machines. In addition, an example in which data such as set values and a program for driving are stored in the memory of the driving control has been described, but a predetermined one of these data and programs can be stored in the memory of the communication controller. Further, when the work machine is driven in a predetermined pattern from the management unit side, the data of the pattern can be directly output from the communication controller to each switching valve.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a malfunction occurs in the work machine, the management section stores the set value related to the malfunction stored in the memory of the work machine into proper data. Since it has been rewritten, it is possible to eliminate the need for maintenance personnel to go to the site to make adjustments, which can significantly improve the work efficiency of maintenance personnel and, in turn, suppress the increase in maintenance personnel. it can. On the other hand, for the work machine side, the time for waiting for the arrival of the maintenance personnel is saved, so that the work efficiency can be significantly improved.

Further, when the work machine is driven from the management section in order to obtain the information for rewriting the above-mentioned data, the burden of the operation of the operator of the work machine is eliminated,
Further, the management unit can surely collect the data required for the analysis.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a maintenance system for a work machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a hydraulic excavator.

FIG. 3 is a hydraulic circuit diagram of a hydraulic excavator.

4 is a characteristic diagram of the pressure applied to the pressure compensation valve with respect to the differential pressure used in the hydraulic circuit shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a pattern of combined operation of the hydraulic excavator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Management Section 2 Control Section 3 Switching Station 4 Relay Station 11 Management Section Computer 12, 23 Communication Controller 13, 24 Transceiver 21 Operation Controller 21M Memory 22 Storage Section 241 Antenna 25 Data Extraction Instruction Section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A work machine whose operation is controlled based on preset data. A rewritable storage section for storing the data on the work machine side, and a work machine side transmission / reception for transmitting / receiving the data to / from the outside. Means for managing the work machine, and a management section side transmitting / receiving means for transmitting / receiving various data to / from the work machine side transmitting / receiving means, and a management machine side managing means for transmitting / receiving various data to / from the work machine side transmitting / receiving means. A reception data storage unit that receives and stores operating state data, and the storage on the work machine side via the management unit side transmission / reception unit and the work machine side transmission / reception unit based on the data stored in the reception data storage unit. A maintenance system for a work machine, comprising: a data rewriting unit that rewrites required data out of the data stored in the unit. 2. The maintenance system for a working machine according to claim 1, wherein the management unit side is provided with drive command means for driving the working machine in a predetermined pattern in order to collect the operating state data of the working machine. Work machine management system characterized by