Reliability Evaluation of CNC Machine Tools from a Design Team Perspective

Reliability evaluation aims to quantify the reliability level of equipment and to verify its compliance with reliability requirements. Existing reliability evaluation methods primarily rely on operational phase data, which means reliability evaluation may lag behind actual needs. In practice, both users and design teams are more concerned with how to estimate CNC machine tools’ reliability before they are put into operation. Moreover, current reliability evaluation methods usually ignore the design team’s influence on CNC machine tool reliability. To overcome these limitations, this study proposes a novel reliability evaluation method that accounts for the influence of the design team on the reliability of CNC machine tools. By analyzing the impact of the design team’s technical capabilities and reliability capabilities on CNC machine tool reliability, a set of quantifiable evaluation indicators was established. Then, the weight coefficients of all indicators were determined using the expert scoring method. Finally, all data were integrated using the vector projection method, which enabled a quantitative reliability evaluation of CNC machine tools from different design teams within the same category. Additionally, the proposed method was applied to conduct practical case studies on multiple CNC external cylindrical grinding machine tools designed by different design teams, thereby validating the feasibility of the proposed method. The reliability evaluation results not only determine the reliability level of each CNC machine tool but also identify the weak points in the technical capabilities and reliability competencies of each design team. This study concludes by discussing the significance of this approach for enhancing the reliability capabilities of design teams and its practical implications for end users.