A two-stage reliability allocation method for remanufactured machine tools integrating neural networks and remanufacturing coefficient

Reliability allocation is an important task that needs to be done in the design phase of machine tool remanufacturing to ensure that remanufactured machine tools meet the reliability target. However, unlike new machine tool products, remanufactured machine tools have high uncertainty and small samples, and traditional reliability methods are not suitable for remanufactured machine tools. This paper aims to propose an improved reliability allocation method for remanufactured machine tools integrating neural networks and remanufacturing coefficient. With the fault tree analysis (FTA) model constructed, the fault of remanufactured machine tools can be divided into three levels: system-level, subsystem-level, and part-level. The three-layer feedforward artificial neural network is adopted to allocate system reliability to subsystem-level. When reliability is allocated from subsystem-level to part-level, the remanufacturing comprehensive evaluation system and a remanufacturing coefficient that takes into account the characteristics of remanufactured components are introduced. Finally, the proposed method is illustrated in a case of reliability allocation for remanufactured NC gear hobbing machines. Moreover, the results show that the reliability target can be achieved and the growth of reliability can be guaranteed through the proposed method.