INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.

425-434 MARCH 2017 / 425

REGULAR PAPER DOI: 10.1007/s12541-017-0051-2

ISSN 2234-7593 (Print) / 2005-4602 (Online)

Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis of

Remanufactured Machine Tools in Service

Yan-bin Du1,#, Lan Liao1, and Le-su Wang1

1 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Manufacturing Equipment Mechanism Design and Control, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, China
# Corresponding Author / E-mail:duzi2009@163.com, TEL: +86-23-62768400, FAX: +86-23-62768400

KEYWORDS: Remanufacturing, FMECA, Failure mode, Machine tool

Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) of remanufactured machine tools is one of the key issues for improving their
quality and reliability. According to the characteristics of remanufactured machine tools and the basic principle of FMECA, the
method of failure mode analysis for remanufactured machine tools in service is proposed, with the FMECA procedure being
expounded in detail. In addition, failure criticality of each failure mode for remanufactured machine tools is analyzed by risk priority
number (RPN) method. Finally, the method is demonstrated in a case study of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing machine. The
results from the case study are discussed and conclusions are drawn.

Manuscript received: April 20, 2016 / Revised: October 29, 2016 / Accepted: November 2, 2016

1. Introduction
With the accelerating replacement of mechanical and electrical
products in China or other countries, large amounts of used
electromechanical products are out of service, which need to be
1
remanufactured to recycle the high value-added. As the typical
electromechanical product of high remanufacturing value, machine tool
remanufacturing has got more and more attentions from governments,
machine tools show that the methodologies of FMECA (Failure mode,
effects and criticality analysis) or FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect
Analysis) and FTA (Fault tree analysis) are used by researchers to
5,6
analyze the failure modes, failure mechanism and failure causes.
Ahmad et al. proposed a failure analysis method by integrating the
FMECA method and FTM (Failure Time Modelling) based on PHM
(Proportional Hazard Model) and it was illustrated in a case study in the
processing industry. Liu, et al. have reviewed the literatures of RPN
7

OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) of machine tools and third-
2
party remanufacturers. It has become a new strategic industry for
China’s manufacturing sector and there are over 2000 machine tool
3
remanufacturers in China. Most industrial customers are looking for
remanufactured products that meet the functional performance needs as
well as have good quality and reliability. The urgent factor to obtain
customer acceptance for remanufactured machine tools is to guarantee
their reliability. However, the large number of remanufactured machine
tools in service would fail inevitably with various failure modes, such
as damage, loosening, leakage, disorder, degradation and function
failure. Different from new machine tools, remanufactured machine
tools are composed of original used parts, remanufactured parts and
replaced new parts. For these structure differences, their failure
probability and failure mode are different from those of new machine
4
tools. Therefore, the need to identify the failure modes and determine
the effect of each failure mode becomes more evident and urgent.
Nowadays, researches on failure mode and failure principle of
(Risk Priority Number) method in FMEA, categorized them according
to the approaches used to overcome the limitations of the conventional
RPN method and finally given an indication of current trends and the
best direction for future research in order to enhance the performance
5
of FMEA. Carmignani presented a new integrated priority-cost FMECA
(PC-FMECA) method in order to exceed the limits of traditional FMECA
methodology and proposed a method which allows for the calculation
of a new RPN and the introduction of the concept of profitability taking
8
into consideration the corrective action cost. Xiao et al. proposed a
minimum cut set based method for assessing the impact of multiple
failure modes and extended the definition of RPN by multiplying it
with a weight parameter which characterizes the importance of the
9
failure causes within the system. Besides that, FMECA method has
been performed to new product design to improve its performance and
reliability. Almannai et al. introduced FMEA method to identify the
associated risk with that option to be addressed in the manufacturing
10
system design and implementation phases. Parameshwaran et al. used

© KSPE and Springer 2017

 426 / MARCH 2017
method of Fuzzy FMEA to rank the potential failures of prototype
model of mechatronics product during new product development and
11
the developed model may be redesigned to improve its reliability.
It can be concluded from above literature reviews that FMECA has
become increasingly important in new product development and
remanufactured product design, while the researches have rarely refer
12,13
to the failure analysis for remanufactured machine tools in service.
Some literatures have integrated FMECA with design for
remanufacturing or remanufactured product design, as listed as follows.
Lam, et al. assessed the waste stream of an automotive remanufacturer
to determine factors that impede the reuse of parts and proposed a
modified FMEA method to identify the product failure reasons for
14
remanufacturing. The modified FMEA allowed them to take into
consideration the ease of detection and repair of failure, in conjunction
15
with the contribution to the waste stream of each failure mode.
Okumura et al. defined two different types of failures which a product
may undergo in a remanufacturing environment, namely functional
failures that refer to functional insufficiency or obsolescence and
physical failure that is equivalent to the state of malfunction or
16
breakdown of a product. Abdullah et al. provided a remanufacturing
analysis for improvement to the automotive sectors on engine block
and presented the information based on the discussion of FMEA to
17
encourage the implementation of remanufacturing activities.
Parkinson and Thompson outlined the difficulties associated with the
planning and execution of product remanufacturing and then presented
a systematic approach for the planning and execution of product
18
remanufacture based upon the FMEA method. Esterman et al.
combined the use of FMEA, Experimental Model Building, Monte
Carlo Simulation and Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics to propose a
general framework for reliability prediction in a remanufacturing
environment. The proposed method was illustrated in a case study of a
remanufactured engine cylinder head that had a fatigue crack repaired
19
by a welding process. Jung et al. outlined a systematic guideline for
remanufacturing process using FMEA, including product FMEA that is
done to identify product criticality for the identified failure modes and
process FMEA that is conducted to identify the risk of remanufacturing
20
process. Dindarian, et al. analyzed the failure modes of electronic
products with the example of microwave ovens and proposed five
successive phases of quality checks for recovered products to guarantee
21
and improve their quality and reliability. To identify relationship
between each remanufacturing process and failure modes, Mok et al.
analyzed the characteristics of target product (power steering oil pump
of vehicle) and designed a new algorithm to find the most closely
22
related process with each failure mode. Wang et al. performed a
Failure Mode Mechanisms and Effect Analysis (FMMEA) to identify
critical components that need to be monitored, then the remaining
useful life of electromechanical systems determine was estimated to
23
determine the optimized refurbishing or remanufacturing time.
The aim of this paper is to provide a FMECA procedure to identify
the failure modes of remanufactured machine tools and improve their
reliability. The paper is structured as follows. In the following two
sections, we will propose a method of failure mode analysis for
remanufactured machine tools in service, including the procedures of
system definition, FMEA of remanufactured machine tools and
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3
criticality analysis of failure mode. In the fourth section, we will
describe the case study of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing
machine to illustrate the methodology. In addition, the results would be
discussed in this section. Conclusions and an outlook on further
research goals are afforded in the final section.
2. Procedure of FMECA of Remanufactured Machine Tools
Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) of
remanufactured machine tools is a reliability procedure which
documents all possible failures of remanufactured machine tools in
service, determines by failure mode analysis the effects of each failure
on operation process of remanufactured machine tools, identifies those
failures critical to operation success, and ranks each failure according
to criticality category of failure effect and probability of occurrence.
The FMECA of remanufactured machine tools can provide the
designers with a decision method to select the reasonable design of
remanufactured machine tools with good reliability and identify the
potential failures and their effects on operation success to avoid safety
disaster of remanufactured machine tools.
According to procedure of FMECA for new product design and
unique characteristics of remanufactured machine tools, FMECA of
remanufactured machine tools is performed in five steps, as shown in
Fig. 1.
(1) Data collection: it is important to have a good understanding of
the past, current and future performance of remanufactured machine
tools or components as well as the remanufacturing process. Collecting
and reviewing relevant information would provide the foundation of
FMECA and reliability analysis for remanufactured machine tools,
including specifications, components lists, function description,
operation condition, reliability and maintenance data, life-cycle
information (such as production date, previous service information,
maintenance record and remanufacturing process).
(2) System definition: the scope of FMECA for remanufactured
machine tools should be determined, functions of remanufactured
machine tools should be defined and identification criteria of potential
failure should be documented.
(3) FMEA of remanufactured machine tools: a reliability logic
block diagram of remanufactured machine tools should be constructed.
Then, failure modes of remanufactured machine tools would be
analyzed; failure causes, failure effects and failure detection method
should also be identified and analyzed.
(4) Criticality analysis: the critical failure modes of all components
of remanufactured machine tools in the FMEA are identified. Then,
criticality category of failure effects is identified and probability of
occurrence for each failure mode is determined. Finally, the results of
criticality analysis should be documented.
(5) Improvement measures: failure location and failure causes
should be analyzed and identified. Then, the corrective actions of
reliability improvement would be proposed from the aspects of product
structure, redesign of remanufactured machine tools, quality control of
remanufacturing process, use and maintenance of remanufactured
machine tools to reduce failure rate.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3 MARCH 2017 / 427

Fig. 1 Procedure of FMECA of remanufactured machine tools

Fig. 2 Structure of remanufactured lathe (especially for the main transmission system)

Fig. 3 Task reliability diagram of main transmission system for remanufactured lathe

3. Implementation Process of FMECA for Remanufactured
Machine Tools
3.1 System definition
System definition is to determine the objective and scope of FMECA,
define the system functions and construct the function block diagram
and task reliability block diagram of remanufactured machine tools.
Here, remanufactured machine tools are divided into various function
components and the structure may be illustrated by a hierarchical tree
diagram. For example, the structure of one remanufactured lathe is
established and its main transmission system is analyzed in detail, as
shown in Fig. 2. In addition, the task reliability block diagram of main
transmission system is established, as shown in Fig. 3.
3.2 FMEA of remanufactured machine tools
Machine tools generally consist of supporting part, speed change
mechanism, feeding mechanism, spindle box, turret (tool magazine),
manipulation and control system, cooling system, lubrication system
 428 / MARCH 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3

Table 1 FMECA worksheet for remanufactured machine tools

Failure Failure Failure Parts category Identification Failure Improvement
NO. Criticality Remarks
mode cause location (reman-/used/ new) method effects measures
1 F 1 R1 - P
1 - I
1 c1 -
2 F 2 R2 - P
2 - I
2 c2 -
… … … … … … … … … …
n F n Rn - P
n - I
n cn -

Table 2 Failure modes of remanufactured machine tools

Types of Failure Proportion of Quantity of each Proportion of each
NO. Failure modes
failure mode quantity / Nij failure mode / Pij failure type NFi failure type /PFi
1 Damage of mechanical parts/ workpiece N 11 P
11
Damage
2 Damage of electrical components N P NF PF
F 12 12 1 1

N P
1
3 Other damage failures 13 13

4 Loosening Mechanical connection is loose N P

NF PF
21 21

5 F 2 Bad contacts of electrical parts N 22 P

22
2 2

6 Leakage or Leakage of air, water or oil N P

NF PF
31 31

7 blocking F 3 Blocking N 32 P
32
3 3

8 Strokemm disorder N 41 P
41

9 Disorder Clearance is too large or too small N P

NF PF
42 42

10 F 4 Interference N 43 P
43
4 4

11 Other disorder failures N 44 P

44

12 Aging of machine tools N 51 P

51
Degradation
13 Abnormal wear N P NF PF
F 52 52 5 5

N P
5
14 Other degradation failures 53 53

15 Function failure partly N 61 P

61

16 Function Degeneration of working accuracy N P

NF PF
62 62

17 failure F 6 Instability of performance N 63 P

63
6 6

18 Other function failures N 64 P

64

Table 3 Failure causes of remanufactured machine tools

NO. Failure causes Failure quantity caused by each life cycle / NRi Proportion / PRi
1 Previous service time R1 N R1 PR 1

2 Redesign R2 N R2 PR 2

3 Reconditioning R3 N R3 PR 3

4 Reassembly R4 N R4 PR 4

5 New parts procurement / cooperative production R5 N R5 PR 5

6 Customer usage R6 N R6 PR 6

and ancillary equipment. Remanufactured machine tools are composed
of remanufactured parts, original used parts and some replaced new
parts, correspondingly new machine tools are composed of all new
parts. Due to structure difference, the failure modes of remanufactured
machine tools are distinct from those of new ones.
To implement FMEA for remanufactured machine tools, a suitable
FMECA worksheet for the analysis has to be decided. Here, a sample
FMECA worksheet covering the most relevant columns is given below,
as shown in Table 1. The FMEA and its documentation are the key
procedure of FMECA and these are accomplished by completing the
columns of this FMECA worksheet. The potential possible failures for
remanufactured machine tools would be documented in the FMECA
worksheet.
3.2.1 Failure mode analysis
Based on classification of failure modes for CNC (Computer
Numerical Control) machine tools, the failure modes of remanufactured
machine tools can be categorized into six types, namely damage,
loosening, leakage or blocking, disorder, degradation and function
failure. Each type of failure mode consists of many subclasses of failure
modes. Based on FMEA results, the failure modes of remanufactured
machine tools can be listed in Table 2, including types of failure mode,
failure modes, failure quantity, proportion of failure mode, quantity of
each failure type and proportion of each failure type. Here, proportion
of each failure type is calculated based on the following Eq. (1).
n
NFi
PFi = ，NF = ∑NFi (1)
NF i=1
3.2.2 Failure cause analysis
Machine tool remanufacturing is a process that restores used machine
tools to like-new performance and save energy, natural resources, landfill
24
space by less re-smelting. The failure causes of remanufactured machine
tools are relevant to remanufacturing process, previous service life and
other life cycles. The failure causes of remanufactured machine tools can
be classified by the life cycle into six categories, namely previous service
life, redesign, reconditioning, reassembly, new parts procurement /
cooperative production and customer usage, as shown in Table 3.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3 MARCH 2017 / 429

Table 4 Severity evaluation criteria of remanufactured machine tools

ESR Severity
1 None
2 Very minor
3 Minor
4 Very low
5 Low
6 Moderate
7 High
8 Very high
9 Hazardous with warning
10 Hazardous without warning
Severity effect
Slight inconvenience to operation of remanufactured machine tools or no effect.
Remanufactured machine tools are operable. Defect noticed by discriminating customers (less than 25%).
Remanufactured machine tools are operable, but may possess some defects noticeable by discriminating
customers.
Remanufactured machine tools are operable, but possess some defects noticeable to most customers.
The performance of remanufactured machine tools degenerates. It may cause slight inconvenience to related
operations. It can be repaired off-line but does not go to repair department.
Remanufactured machine tools are operable, but the failure may cause rework/repair and/or damage to
equipment.
Remanufactured machine tools are operable, but at reduced level of performance. Customer is dissatisfied.
Remanufactured machine tools are badly damaged and inoperable, with loss of primary function.
Very high severity ranking when a potential failure mode affects safe operation of remanufactured machine
tools and/or involves noncompliance with regulations with warning.
The primary systems of remanufactured machine tools fail and it may endanger operator (machine or assembly)
without warning.

Table 5 Occurrence evaluation criteria

OPR Probability of failure Possible failure rates / λi
1 Remote: failure of remanufactured machine tools is unlikely λi ≤ λ1
2, 3 Low: relatively few failures λ < λi ≤ λ
1 2

4, 5, 6 Moderate: occasional failures λ < λi ≤ λ

2 3

7, 8 High: repeated failures λ < λi ≤ λ

3 4

9, 10 Very high: failure of remanufactured machine tools is almost inevitable λ < λi ≤ λ

4 5

3.2.3 Failure effects analysis

Failure effects analysis refers to document the effects of each failure
mode for remanufactured machine tools on the system safety and product
function. The effects of each failure mode fall into three categories:
local effect, higher level effect and ultimate system effect.

3.3 Criticality analysis for remanufactured machine tools

The purpose of criticality analysis for remanufactured machine tools
is to identify critical failure modes of all components in accordance with
the categories listed in Table 2 and computer critical number based on
the failure severity and probability of occurrence. It can determine the
magnitude of criticality of the components of remanufactured machine Fig. 4 Physical diagram of remanufactured YX3120
tools to system operational success. Nowadays, there are two criticality
analysis methods of FMECA: risk priority number (RPN) and criticality
matrix analysis. Here, RPN method is used in this paper. machine tools are shown in Table 5. Possible failure rates λi refers to
Criticality of each failure mode for remanufactured machine tools C is the occurrence probability of each failure mode in the life cycle of
determined by RPN value which is calculated by the following Eq. (2). remanufactured machine tools and it is corresponding to the OPR value.
Here, λi = Ni / T, where Ni refers to the quantity of ith failure mode that
C = RPN = ESR * OPR (2)
occurred in the inspection period; T refers to service time in the
Where, the higher the RPN value is, the severer its criticality is. The inspection period, with the unit of hour; the threshold value should be
evaluation criteria of ESR (Effect Severity Ranking) and OPR determined based on characteristics of each remanufactured machine
(Occurrence Probability Ranking) are shown as follows. tool in practice.

3.3.1 ESR of failure modes

The purpose of ESR is to identify the ultimate effect of each failure
mode according to ESR evaluation criteria of remanufactured machine
tools shown in Table 4.
3.3.2 OPR of failure modes
The purpose of OPR is to determine the occurrence probability of
each failure mode. The OPR evaluation criteria of remanufactured
4. Case Study
The gear hobbing machines in gear production line of a gear
manufacturing company have served at full load for many years and
their precision cannot meet production requirements. If the production
line is replaced by new machine tools, the lead time is too long and the
cost is too high. For this, the YX3120 gear hobbing machines are
 430 / MARCH 2017
Fig. 5 Function structure diagram of remanufactured YX3120
Fig. 6 Reliability block diagram of axial slide fast-moving of remanufactured YX3120
remanufactured by one OEM of gear cutting machines. After a long
time observation and data statistics, the failure mechanism and failure
modes of this remanufactured equipment in service were analyzed.
4.1 Structure and reliability block diagram of remanufactured
YX3120 gear hobbing machine
YX3120 is a gear hobbing machine of high efficiency and high
rigidity for industries of automobiles, tractor and construction machinery,
especially for gear industries of mass production. It is composed of bed,
large column, feeding box, slide board, hydraulic system, chip removal
system, cooling system, shield, tool rest, table, work-steady column,
electrical system and some auxiliary equipment. After the processes of
disassembly, clean as well as inspection and sorting, mechanical parts
of YX3120 are reconditioned, and then electrical, hydraulic and cooling
systems are replaced or upgraded. In addition, some new parts are
added to replace used parts. The remanufactured YX3120 can meet the
original factory standards, as shown in Fig. 4. Its basic structure and
functions are as shown in Fig. 5.
If one part or component of YX3120 fails, the entire system of YX
3120 machine tool would stop operation. It can be concluded that the
reliability system of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing machine
can be considered as a series system. For example, the reliability block
diagram of axial speediness moving of tool rest slide of YX3120 can
be established, as shown in Fig. 6.
4.2 FMECA of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing machine
4.2.1 Failure mode analysis
According to the structure of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing
machine, its function components can be categorized into eleven
subsystems: supporting parts (including the bed), large column,
worktable, motor, transmission parts, work-steady column, tool rest,
hydraulic system, cooling and lubrication system, electrical system and
auxiliary equipment (accessory). Statistical analysis is conducted for
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3
the quantity of each failure mode of remanufactured YX3120. The
failure modes of remanufactured YX3120 are listed in Table 6, with
failure location, proportion of each failure mode and proportion of each
failure type. In addition, the failure modes are categorized by failure
location, as shown in Table 7.
4.2.2 Failure cause analysis
Because of intimate relationship between each life and failure
modes, it is important to identify the life cycle which causes the failure
of remanufactured YX3120. To determine related failure causes to
increase the reliability of remanufactured YX3120, failure causes of
YX3120 are analyzed from the view of life cycle, as shown in Table 8.
It can be concluded from the analysis results of failure cause that
failure of remanufactured machine tools is related to previous service
time and the unreasonable structure of used machine tools as well as
the fatigue damage of reused parts may cause all kinds of failure.
Meanwhile, failure of remanufactured machine tools is affected by the
processes of structure redesign and part reconditioning. The factors of
remanufacturing process including the cores, workers, facilities,
processing method and management measures would directly affect the
output of remanufacturing system, such as physical dimension,
machining precision, surface quality and mechanical performance of
remanufactured machine tools. These output performances are relevant
to failure rate and reliability of remanufactured machine tools. Therefore,
quality control of remanufacturing process should be strengthened to
improve the quality and reliability of remanufactured YX3120. In
addition, quality control of new parts which are purchased to replace the
used parts has a great impact on the reliability of the remanufactured
YX3120. However, failure of remanufactured YX3120 has been less
affected by the processes of reassembly and customer usage.
4.2.3 Criticality analysis of FMECA for remanufactured YX3120
Due to the difference of failure location and failure cause of each
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3 MARCH 2017 / 431

Table 6 Failure mode analysis of remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing machine

Types of Proportion of each Proportion of each
NO. Failure modes Failure location
failure mode Failure mode /Pij Failure type /Pi
1 Damage of mechanical parts/ workpiece P =13.00%
11 Worktable, tool rest
Damage
2 Damage of electrical components P =4.35% P =21.7% Electrical system, motor
F 12 1

P =4.35%
1
3 Other damage failures 13 Cooling and lubrication system
4 Loosening Mechanical connection is loose P =8.70% Worktable, tool rest
P =17.4%
21

5 F 2 Bad contacts of electrical parts P =8.70%

22
2
Electrical system, motor
Cooling and lubrication system,
6 Leakage or Leakage of air, water or oil P =4.35%
P =8.7%
31
hydraulic system
blocking F 3

P
3
7 Blocking 32 =4.35% Cooling and lubrication system
8 Strokemm disorder P41 =0.00% Worktable, and so on
9 Disorder Clearance is too large or too small P =4.35% Transmission parts
P =8.7%
42

10 F 4 Interference P43 =0.00%

4
Transmission parts, and so on
11 Other disorder failures P44 =4.35% Tool rest, and so on
12 Aging of machine tools P51 =8.70% Machine
Degradation
13 Abnormal wear P =8.70% P =17.4% Guideway (bed, large column)
F 52 5

P
5
14 Other degradation failures 53 =0.00% Saddle, and so on
15 Function failure partly P61 =4.35% Transmission part, worktable, tool rest
Function
16 Degeneration of working accuracy P =8.70% Worktable, tool rest
P =26.1%
62
(performance)
P
6
17 Instability of performance =8.70% Tool rest (Hob), transmission system
failure F 63

P
6
18 Other function failures 64 =4.35% Work-steady column, and so on

Table 7 Failure location analysis of remanufactured YX3120

NO. Failure location Structure components Proportion Pk
1 Supporting parts Some parts are remanufactured. P =4.35%
1

2 Large column Reused. P =4.35%

2

3 Worktable The box is reused and the internal parts are remanufactured. P =4.35%
3

4 Motor Reused. P =8.69%

4

5 Transmission parts Some parts are remanufactured and some are replaced by new ones. P =17.39%
5

6 Work-steady column Some parts are remanufactured. P =4.35%

6

7 Tool rest Some parts are remanufactured. P =21.74%

7

8 Hydraulic system It is replaced by new one. P =4.35%

8

9 Cooling and lubrication system It is replaced by new one. P =4.35%

9

10 Electrical system It is replaced by new one. P =17.39%

10

11 Auxiliary equipment (accessory) Some parts are replaced by new ones. P =8.69%
11

Table 8 Failure causes of remanufactured YX3120

NO. Failure causes Proportion / PRi
1 Previous service time R 1 PR =26.09%
1

2 Redesign R 2 PR =21.74%
2

3 Reconditioning R 3 PR =21.74%
3

4 Reassembly R 4 PR =4.35%
4

5 New parts procurement / cooperative production R 5 PR =17.39%

5

6 Customer usage R 6 PR =8.69%

6

Table 9 Criticality of each failure mode of remanufactured YX3120

NO. Failure mode Probability of occurrence / Pi OPR ESR
i Criticality Ci Criticality ranking
1 Damage F 1 0.217 8 9 C =72
1 1
2 Loosening F 2 0.174 6 2 C =12
2 4
3 Leakage or blocking F 3 0.087 3 3 C =9
3 6
4 Disorder F 4 0.087 3 4 C =12
4 4
5 Degradation F 5 0.174 6 5 C =30
5 3
6 Function failure F 6 0.261 9 7 C =63
6 2

failure mode, the criticality of each potential failure mode should be Ci = RPNi = ESRi * OPRi
analyzed, as shown in Table 9. The criticality of ith failure mode of
remanufactured YX3120 is Ci, which can be calculated by the following Where, ESRi refers to Effect Severity Ranking of ith failure mode
equation. for remanufacture YX3120, which is the average value of each subclass
 432 / MARCH 2017
of failure modes. OPRi refers to Occurrence Probability Ranking of ith
failure mode for remanufactured YX3120 and it is presented by the
proportion of each failure type Pi.
The results show that criticality of damage failure F is the highest,
1 machine tools should be analyzed. This provide primary data
especially the damage of some remanufactured parts or original used
parts which may affect safe operation of remanufactured YX3120.
Because used machine tools which have served for a life cycle may
face the problems of performance degradation, working accuracy of
remanufactured ones in operation would decline, such as accumulated
pitch error ∆Fp. Thus it can be seen that the criticality of function failure
F and degradation failure F are higher and they are caused by recycled
6 5
used parts and some remanufactured parts. Other failure modes may
cause slight inconvenience to related operations, with low or minor
effect.
4.3 Results and discussions
It can be concluded from the FMECA results of remanufactured
YX3120 that failure modes of remanufactured machine tools are both
significantly similar to and different from those of new products.
Nevertheless, some issues about the failure modes, failure causes, failure
location and failure criticality of remanufactured machine tools should
be discussed.
(1) Different machine tools may have different failure modes and
failure mechanism. The FMECA results of remanufactured
YX3120 reflect the general rule of failure modes and failure
mechanism of remanufactured machine tools.
(2) For remanufactured YX3120, damage failure has the severest
failure criticality. Although the size of experiment sample is too
low, the FMECA results of YX3120 can also display or represent
that of other remanufactured machine tools. Of course, it may
vary for function difference or structure difference between each
other.
(3) Many literatures or practice cases have mentioned that the
performance of remanufactured machine tools can reach or
exceed that of new ones. Here, this conclusion can be verified
from the FMECA results of YX3120. However, due to the
structure difference, the failure rate of remanufactured machine
tools may be little higher than that of new ones in stable
operation period.
(4) The purpose of FMECA is to identify failure causes and failure
criticality and to improve quality and reliability of remanufactured
machine tools. From the results of case study, we can take some
targeted corrective actions to improve it. For that failure is mainly
relevant to previous service time, previous service information
should be collected to support process design and structure
redesign to improve remanufactured machine tools. In addition,
the concepts of total quality management through-out the
remanufacturing workshop should be implemented to guarantee
the quality of remanufacturing process, with inspection of all
parts before, during and after remanufacturing. For that damage
failure has the severest criticality, some monitoring and control
system of failure should be added to avoid safety disaster of parts
damage, especially for usage stage of remanufactured machine
tools.
(5) The results may also be applied to new product development to
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3
improve the reliability of new machine tools. In order to determine
the failure modes, effects and criticality of remanufactured
machine tools, the failure condition and residual life of used
source of failure analysis and reliability growth test for new
product development to reduce its failure rate and to improve its
reliability. In addition, the corrective actions of reliability
improvement for remanufactured machine tools may also be
appropriate for new ones.
5. Conclusions
With the accelerating development of China's manufacturing
industry, there are enormous machine tools which are out of service and
need performance recovery or improvement through remanufacturing.
It results to a lot of remanufactured machine tools which would enter
the phase of operation service. Associated with the operation,
remanufactured machine tools would fail with various failure modes.
For the failure modes of remanufactured machine tools which are
different from new ones, FMECA method and its procedures for
remanufactured machine tools are proposed in this paper and it can be
applied to all remanufactured machine tools. The case study which
illustrates the application of proposed FMECA method for
remanufactured YX3120 gear hobbing machine shows that: 1) The
function and performance of remanufactured machine tools can reach
those of new ones and the failure modes or failure criticality are similar
to those of new ones. However, due to the special hybrid structure of
remanufactured which are composed of used parts, remanufactured
parts and new procured parts, the failure rate is higher, which are mainly
the damage, function and degradation failure caused by used parts or
remanufactured parts. 2) The structure, service condition and quality
characteristics of each remanufactured machine tool are different from
each other, therefore, each remanufactured machine tool is unique, and
so for its failure modes. Then, the FMECA results for each
remanufactured machine tool may not be suitable for other machine
tools. 3) It is concluded from the analysis results of failure cause that
the life cycles of previous service, redesign and reconditioning affect the
failure rate of remanufactured machine tools more greatly. In addition,
reliability of remanufactured machine tools is determined by reliability
design during redesign stage as well as remanufacturing process.
Therefore, to guarantee the reliability of remanufactured machine tools,
25
the operation state in previous service time should be traced, quality
control of remanufacturing process should be strengthened (such as
quality monitoring and fault forecasting system for remanufacturing
process) and reliability performance of remanufactured machine tools
26
should be improved by structure redesign.
Due to uncertain structure of remanufactured machine tools and
uncertain operation conditions, the failure mechanism of each
remanufactured machine tool is unique, even though the same types of
machine tools have different failure modes. The purpose of proposed
FMECA method is to explore the inherent failure modes, failure rule
and failure criticality of remanufactured machine tools. FMECA
statistical analysis of remanufactured machine tools need a large number
of sample data, however, the quantity of remanufactured machine tools
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 3
in service is small and data acquirement is difficult. With the
development and promotion of remanufacturing industry,
remanufactured machine tools in service would be more and more,
followed by a large amount of on-line operation data and failure data.
Then, the unique failure mechanism of remanufactured machine tools
should be investigated based on the proposed FMECA method which
may also be improved and Big-data theory. Here, remanufactured
machine tools should be monitored and diagnosed by collecting signals
of displacement, cutting speed, power, stress or temperature with new
smart sensors. In the future research, many other failure modes or
reliability related topics would be investigated: data acquisition for
failure analysis, risk priority models for FMECA method, FMECA-
based evaluation of reliability, operation visualization of remanufactured
machine tools by computer simulation, failure analysis of
electromechanical integration system, coupling analysis of multi-failure
modes, and so on. In addition, the proposed FMECA method for
remanufactured machine tools may be modified and then applied to
other remanufactured machinery equipment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant No. 51305470),
the Fundamental and Advanced Research Project of Chongqing (Grant
No. cstc2014jcyjA70008), the Science and Technology Research
Project of Chongqing Education Commission of China (Grant No.
KJ1500613; KJ1400635) and the Opening Project of Key Laboratory
of CTBU (Grant No. 1456036). In addition, we would like to thank
Professor Cong-bo Li at Chongqing University for proposing some
modification suggestions.
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