Development of remote monitoring and maintenance system for machine tools

This paper introduces a system for machine tool manufacturers to monitor and maintain their customers' machine tools remotely. Two communication options are discussed to physically connect thousands of machine tools worldwide to the manufacturer's server. XML file format is used to send the machine tool status. To process and store huge amount of incoming data, a parallel processing strategy is applied to improve the conventional sequential way. With the established network and collected data, applications such as remote maintenance, monitoring and preventive maintenance are presented. The developed system can reduce customers' machine downtime and the manufacturer's service cost. (C) 2008 CIRP.