January 2017 Edition

Recent Headlines:

Defense:

Army Round Triggers Problems In Marine M27 Auto Rifle – Task & Purpose

Preliminary findings show the Army’s M855A1 round does not meet the system reliability requirement when fired from the Corps’ M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle.

The Miracle That Wasn’t: Navy Hammered in Senate Over ‘Failed’ Ship Design – RT

The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are over budget, far behind schedule and cannot perform any of their designated missions, government auditors told a Senate panel. They are opposed to Navy proposals to buy 12 more ships, re-designated as frigates.

Navy Investigation: Canopy Explosion Led to Grounding of Growlers, Super Hornets – UPI

The U.S. Navy temporarily grounded all Super Hornet and Growler squadrons because a canopy exploded off a jet earlier this month, according to a Naval Safety Center summary of the incident.

Marines to Get PMAG to Fix M27 Woes with M855A1 Round – KIT UP

In welcome news for many a Marine (and Magpul employee), the Marine Corps has finally approved the high-performing PMAG magazine for use on the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, as well as the M16A4 and M4 carbines.

Automotive:

CarMax, Others Settle US Actions Over Ads on Used Car Safety – Seattle PI

CarMax Inc. and two other used-car retailers have settled complaints from federal regulators that they touted their inspections in advertising but failed to disclose that some of the vehicles were under safety recalls and unrepaired.

Agreements Reached in Dispute on Open Recalls – Automotive News

In the dispute over how dealerships can advertise and sell used vehicles which have open recalls, particularly certified used vehicles, the Federal Trade Commission gave its final approval to and closed consent agreements with General Motors and two large dealership groups.

Federal Trade Commission to America’s used car buyers: Drop Dead. – Car Consumers

Consumer and safety organizations blasted the FTC Commissioners’ decision, announced today, to finalize consent orders with GM and the Lithia and Koons auto dealership chains that will allow them to advertise that unrepaired recalled used cars with lethal safety defects are “safe,” have been “repaired for safety,” passed a “rigorous inspection” and qualified to be sold as “certified” cars without repairing the safety defects, if they merely disclose that the cars “may” have an open recall.

Energy:

Ofgem Partner: Energy Users May Pay Across Reliability Tiers in Future – The Guardian

Britain is facing the prospect of an energy supply crisis which will see customers having to pay for a higher level of reliability, it has been reported.

Five Simple Points for Preparing for Reliability Compliance Audits – Energy Central

Does your utility go through North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) reliability compliance audits? Do you or your colleagues put in significant hours to prepare for one of these NERC reliability compliance audits? If you answered yes to one of those questions, this article will be of significant help in preparing you for your next reliability compliance audit. Most importantly, these recommendations will help put time back into your work week and get you on the path to getting through a compliance audit without losing (too much) sleep.

Energy Cost, Reliability are Hitting Employers – NH Business Review

Electricity prices and uncertainties about future power supply reliability are a drag on New Hampshire’s business competitiveness.

Customer Experience: Incorporating High Reliability Management Principles Into Utility Customer Service – PA Consulting

Customer service operations with high customer satisfaction have a common characteristic-their management operates in a “proactive” manner versus “reactive” manner. This is what is already being widely practiced by high reliability electric utility distribution system management operations.

Ocean Energy Engineers Tackle Reliability at Sea – Energy of ORKNEY

Engineers and academics have met to discuss ways to improve reliability for marine energy technologies.

Reliability Guidance for Marine Energy Converters – RiaSoR

The Reliability in a Sea of Risk project (RiaSoR) addresses the strategic need for the ocean energy industry to focus on the key engineering challenges that underpin the reliability and survivability of this emerging technology

Glossary of Terms Used in NERC Reliability Standards – NERC

This Glossary lists each term that was defined for use in one or more of NERC’s continent-wide or Regional Reliability Standards and adopted by the NERC Board of Trustees from February 8, 2005 through December 12, 2016.

Industry and Research Join Forces on Reliability Testing of Collectors and Materials – Task 54

Solar thermal collectors and their components are commonly exposed to a wide range of climatic influences. Next to UV radiation, factors like humidity, wind, extremely high or low temperatures, salt, sand and other particles in the atmosphere affect the surfaces and performance of these products.

Mass Transit:

Airports and Railway Stations: Reliability and Maintainability – Installation

Previously we looked into the technology requirements and safety considerations in these tricky environments, here Ian McMurray considers the high bar set in terms of reliability and the benefits of investing more initially to save costs later on.

Space/Aviation:

Applicability and Limitations of Reliability Allocation Methods – NASA/TM

Reliability allocation process may be described as the process of assigning reliability requirements to individual components within a system to attain the specified system reliability. For large systems, the allocation process is often performed at different stages of system design.

NASA’s Power Supply Mistake on the ISS Was Totally Avoidable – Wired

The International Space Station is currently home to six intrepid astronauts, one Robonaut, and four 14,000-pound payload-holders called ExPRESS Logistics Carriers. Experiments from Earth like the laser-communicator OPALS fly up to Station and Lego-attach to these carriers, which provide them with a place to stay and, just as importantly, the electrical power and data links they need to do their jobs. But since 2013, scientists sending up payloads have had trouble with the on-orbit utility grid.

List of Russian Space Launch Failures Since Dec. 2010 – Space Policy Online

Russia’s once reliable fleet of space launch vehicles began a string of failures beginning in December 2010 that has created significant consternation in Russia’s space program and brought about firings and reorganizations, but the failures continue.

Impact Of Smarter Aircraft On Maintenance, Reliable Travel – Aviation Week Network

Many consider the Golden Age of aviation to be the 1920s and 30s when aircraft went from wood and fabric to metal bodies, while others associate this age with the 1960s and the rise of jet airliners.

How Reliable is my Magneto? – General Aviation News

These facilities usually have a quick reference check list by aircraft model they use when performing 100 hour or annual inspections.

Rise of Drone Use in Transportation and Logistics Requires Proper Tools for Reliable, Safe and Efficient Operation – Panasonic for Business

Drones are seemingly everywhere and they are being used for new and different tasks every day. The consumer oriented drones that have become so popular are only a small segment of the market and offer only some of the controls and functions available by their commercial counterparts. Enhanced functions that include precise controls, GPS mapping and flight planning, geofencing, and larger carrying capacities make industrialized drones suitable for many commercial purposes.

Medical/Health:

Characterising the Reliability of a Blower System for Medical Devices – Weibull

The project’s objective is to provide an integrated approach to reliability assessment, addressing the issues of component reliability as well as the blower system reliability.

Best of 2016: Interconnect Strategies for Medical Devices – Today’s Medical Developments

Connectors play a critical role in electrical systems, but the interconnect requirements are often considered at the end of the product design phase.

Industrial:

New Year’s Maintenance Resolutions – UE Systems INC

Malfunctioning machinery, steam leaks, improper lubrication, and other maintenance issues represent a vampiric drain on your plant’s efficiency. While the individual losses may be small, they can add to up to massive costs over a long timescale and continuous operation. When small issues metastasize into equipment failure, the costs soar even higher as entire lines or even facilities need to shut down for maintenance.

Calculation and Reliability of Timber Structure Bolt Connection Subjected to Double Unequal Shears with Thick Plates as Outer Members – MATEC

The paper shows the calculation and reliability assessment of bolted connections subjected to unequal double shear with thick plates as outer members and inner timber member

Electronics:

RCM Gains Renewed Interest in Semiconductor Space: Reliability-Centered Maintenance Techniques are Being Used to Reduce LifeCycle Costs and Typical OEM Maintenance Schedules for Existing Systems – RMS Partnership

There is tremendous interest these days to design and develop all types of complex systems, including infrastructure, communication, logistics and distribution systems that are not only reliable and maintainable but are also robust, resilient and sustainable.

3-D-Compatible Germanium nMOS Gate Stack with High Mobility and Superior Reliability – PHYS

At this week’s IEEE IEDM conference, imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technologies showed for the first time a silicon (Si)-passivated germanium (Ge) nMOS gate stack with dramatically reduced interface defect density (DIT) reaching the same level as a Si gate stack and with high mobility and reduced positive bias temperature instability (PBTI).

Software:

A Software Reliability Model Based on a Geometric Sequence of Failure Rates – Arxiv

This paper proposes a model that is based on a geometric sequence (or progression) of the failure rates of faults.

On a Software Reliability Growth Model with Log Logistic Failure Time Distribution – International Journal of Engineering and Computer Science

In this article we propose a software reliability model in which the distribution of time between two failures assumed to be log logistic distribution. The model can capture increasing/decreasing nature of failure rate. The parameters of the model are estimated using maximum likelihood method. A simulation study and real data are used to verify the model.

Software Reliability Apportionment using Fuzzy Logic – Indian Journal of Science and Technology

This paper presents software reliability apportionment using fuzzy logic.

Discussion on Software Aging Management of Nuclear Power Plant Safety Digital Control System – Springer Open

Managing the aging of digital control systems ensures that nuclear power plant systems are in adequate safety margins during their life cycles. Software is a core component in the execution of control logic and differs between digital and analog control systems.

Human Factors:

Impact Analysis of Human Factors on Power System Operation Reliability – Springer Link

This paper illustrates how human factors affect power system operation reliability from 2 typical aspects: imperfect maintenance caused by human errors, and impact of human factors on emergency dispatch operation and power system cascading failure.

Aliging Task Analysis with Human Reliability Analysis – SAGE Journals

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the disparate approaches for human error decomposition into a simple framework that can be used in support of human reliability analysis (HRA).

Human Factors, User Requirements, and User Acceptance of Ride-Sharing in Automated Vehicles – International Transport Forum

This paper provides an overview of the social-psychological factors that are likely to influence the trust and acceptance of shared SAE Level 4 Automated Vehicles (AVs).

Human Factors Design Guidance For Driver-Vehicle Interfaces – NHTSA

The purpose of this document is to provide Human Factors design guidance, based on the bestavailable research and established Human Factors concepts, for DVIs. Note that this document is not meant to serve as a standard.

Sensors:

Enhancing the Reliability of Mobile Robots Control Process via Reverse Validation – SAGE Journals

The article deals with integrating the inertial navigation unit implemented into the system of controlling the robot.

Reliability Prediction of Soil Humidity Sensor using Parts Count Analysis Method – Indian Journal of Science and Technology

The main objective of reliability is to determine the useful working time before which the circuit or component becomes useless. The focus in this is to understand the need to develop Artificial Intelligence technique for the determination of reliability.