Importance

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Abstract

The invention provides a computerized method and apparatus which enables a user, even one who has little or no predictive maintenance skills, to establish a predictive maintenance database that defines information needed to monitor equipment in accordance with a predictive maintenance plan. The type of equipment components to be monitored and associated physical characteristics of the components are input to a computer as an equipment configuration, which may include one or more interconnected components. The computer includes a knowledge base that defines relationships between monitoring practices, component types, and physical characteristic information for component types. A predictive maintenance database is constructed for the components using the inference engine operating on the knowledge base, the selected component type, and the selected physical characteristic information. Multiple measurement technologies may be specified for each component. Preferably, for each measurement technology specified, the predictive maintenance database includes measurement points, an analysis parameter set, and an alarm limit set. Equipment configurations may be defined by the user, or they may be stored in a configuration/component warehouse with little or no configuration definition required of the user.

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First Claim