International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056

Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

RELIABILITY STUDY OF DISTRIBUTOR VALVE AND AVAILABILITY OF SPARES FOR

EQUIPMENT AND INVENTORY CONTROL
B. SATHISH KUMAR
E-mail – [email protected]
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Abstract - The main focus of this project is to study In general en-route failures in Indian Railways are
about the rate of failure of distributor valve used in Air considered most serious issues and will hamper the
brake equipment and related pattern of failures. Beside rolling stock movements. To avoid such failures and to
with this information we can drive the optimal solution support the on line staff, the ready ness of spare and
to bring down the lead time of equipment for want of spares valve in essential to replace the equipment on
spares and maintain the optimum list of spares to bring time without time delay.
down the inventory on spares and cost, to reduce the
overhauling cost and time. Hence, the need of spares and valve required are
studied in detail to minimize the spare cost,
Due the failure of distributor valve, availability of overhauling cost and time delay for want of spares /
spare valve is mandatory to put back the coaches to valve and also to keep the inventory under control
regular passenger’s service. (ence the concept of LRU’s
(line replaceable unit / unit exchange concept) is the Given the constructive, functional and operational
latest trend of maintenance which requires set of main characteristics of rolling stock, the braking systems
components under the head of spares and such that, must meet certain specific requirements, providing
the cost of inventory will be double the time of multiple performance exigencies. Some of the most
consumption of spares cost, hence we need to study the important are then pointed out. While achieving safe
pattern and rate failure of valve to optimize the and effective brake actions to allow speed reductions,
requirement of spares and LRU. fixed-point stops and vehicle or train maintenance on
slopes in complete safety, it is very important that
brake operation and performance should not be
The failure data base will provide the sequence and influenced by environmental conditions.
rate of repetitive of failure and components, from this
optimum level of stock and lead time may be 2. METHDOLOGY
optimized.
The filed failure report is to be created in the designed
Key Words: Service, Spares over hauling time and inventory format. The trouble shooting and pattern of failure are
control captured using simple excel format.

Workshop wise failures are captured and recorded in

1. INTRODUCTION the filed failure format. For the new stock the date of
put in service and for POH stock date of overhauling to
The distributor valve plays a vital role in the function of be recorded. To determine the theoretical distribution
brake system in rolling stock of Indian railways. There law are used graphical and analytical methods.
are millions of coaches are running in the line to cater Graphical methods are very simple and are often used
the need of the customer demand. The maintenance in engineering practice. Features of Microsoft Excel
and overhauling of the components consumes more allow easy application of both methods. Graphical
money and time. method for determining the distribution law and
relevant parameters, is done using probability paper,
The distributor valve requires critical care to perform which is a simple way can be generated in Microsoft
the activity without any line failures. Being the safety Excel. The probability chart is entered point with
item, the single failure will lead to huge time loss and coordinates [ti, F(ti) = MR]. Number of points equal to
even in some case damages to wheels due to break the number of observed elements n or interval with, if
binding. the data given interval. If the plotted points can be
approximated by a straight line, a supposed model of
distribution law is good. Otherwise, rejects the
© 2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 2774
 International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

hypothesis of the law distribution. Using graphical CONCLUSION

methods can be assumed as to the validity of the model In this research, certain solutions to the problems of
law distribution and estimate the parameters of the reliability of valve and spare-parts where there is no
distribution. control over event of failure conditions is studied. In
Options Microsoft Excel, in terms of producing the context reliability of spare-parts air brake
different types of diagrams, which are very important distributor valve, the goal is to maximize the life
in the analysis of reliability are extremely high. For the coverage in the long term considering the failures like
analysis of reliability construct a histogram frequency leak and struck of moving parts. Minimal repair on
of failure occurrence f, cumulative frequency of failure failed distributor valve should be scheduled to ensure
occurrence F, diagrams empirical and theoretical that the system, should be put back in the service to
function of frequency of failure occurrence f(t) and avoid the holding of coach under sick marking. Our
function of cumulative frequency of failure F(t), the proposed solution approach solves the dynamic
reliability function R t function and failure rate λ t . problem as successive static spare-parts over shorter
Analytical methods can be somewhat more accurately time periods. Several spare-parts algorithms and
determine the parameters of the distribution of the different spare-parts policies are proposed to schedule
graphical methods. Especially in situations of abnormal the repair activities online with dynamic reaction to
and analytical procedures are suitable, for example. the brake system failures. The length of the spare-parts
when the shape parameter β, in the Weibull horizon and the frequency of spare-parts are the
distribution, has extreme value. Of course, Spreadsheet features defining our three policies. To address the
to Microsoft Excel - in very useful analytical approach relationship between service run and due periodic
to determining the parameters of the distribution. overhauling spare-parts in this research, it is assumed
that valves are maintained only at failures.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

Blanchard (2004) defines operational availability as

mean time between maintenance (MTBM) divided by
MTBM plus the mean maintenance down time MDT).
MTBM expresses the uptime of the system and MDT is
an expression for the downtime. The uptime of the
system (MTBM) will be conditioned upon how reliable
the system is in terms of failures and upon how much
preventive maintenance the system needs. The number
of failures in any system has to do with the systems
reliability. Reliability can be defined as the probability
that the system will perform in a satisfactory manner
for a given period of time when used under specified
operating conditions Blanchard 2004).

4. REFERENCE

1. UIC -540, 2. RDSO CAMTECH Manual, 3. RDSO Spec

CK -203
4. IR carriage maintenance guide. 5. J.A. Muckstadt. A
model for a multi-item, multi-echelon, multi-indenture
inventory system. Management Science,20(4):472{481,
1973 and etc.,

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