Vehicle Health Monitoring Technology – Overview

Summary

The Vehicle Health Monitoring technology involves evaluating and assessing the current and upcoming state of health of vehicles to reduce maintenance costs and prevent permanent damage. The technology includes diagnostic, prognosis, and health management features that help to identify, forecast and determine the estimated life of each piece of equipment in the vehicle. The four important systems present in the operation of vehicles are Ignition, Cooling, Exhaust, and Fuel. 

Real-time diagnostics are necessary for large fleet vehicles to prevent machine breakdown and increase productivity rates. The Vehicle Health Monitoring system predicts early signs of trouble to prevent vehicle downtime and automation decreases manual activity and maintenance costs.

The first thought strikes the mind after hearing the word prognostics is about health and life conditions. For example, when a human suffers a health problem, the continuous monitoring of the symptoms could indicate the nature of the disease and its consequences of the illness.  

 In the same way, Prognostics technology involves the ability to evaluate and access the current and upcoming state of health and life conditions to reduce the maintenance cost and prevent permanent damage to the machine or vehicle.

This technology is specially designed for large-sized fleet vehicles as their working hours are long. When they face a mechanical breakdown, their maintenance cost would touch the peak and decrease the machine activity rate.  

To carry out the operation successfully without any hindrance and reduce the downtime for the large fleet vehicles, it’s necessary to detect the symptoms early before the actual failure with advanced machine learning techniques. 

Identifying the parameters related to driving patterns, fuel efficiency, safety procedure, and damage aspects by rectifying the associated problems beforehand to minimize the risk.

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Diagnosis, Prognosis and Health Management

The cutting-edge technology has improved many ways to monitor the Vehicle health system. The Diagnostic feature present in Vehicle Prognostic Technology helps to identify where and when the problem has arisen. 

The techniques involved in Prognosis are to forecast the trouble and determine the estimated life of each piece of equipment in the vehicle. To maintain the Vehicle Health system, the sensors and controller collect the data from the vehicle to do self-diagnosis to evaluate the performance of the vehicle. 

The four important types of systems present in the operation of vehicles are Ignition, Cooling, Exhaust, and  Fuel. Each system has its effectiveness in functionality and can also see a decrease in performance from down the line. 

The automotive industry evolved with the advancement of technical and mechanical up-gradation. Talking about diesel engines which are also known as the combustible engine is the central main system for any transport to operate.

The selection of engine types is used based on the vehicle type and depends on the load they are carrying, diesel engines are used in heavy-duty vehicles as they need enormous high torque with low RPM to move the vehicle with the load.

Ignition system

Have you ever wondered how the vehicle starts when you turn on the key and the entire process involved behind it?

The important function of ignition is to start the device by inducing an electric spark inside the engine chamber at the right time by burning the fuel and air to generate combustion to kick off the engine.

The vehicle might have trouble starting without the accurate functioning of the ignition system and the problems associated with it are spark plug failure, Ignition takes place slowly or fastly, damage of ignition switch, low battery, Improper lubrication, and overheating can lead to engine failure if not address the problem in the right time. 

maintainance alert 3

Fuel System

We expect the fuel performance should increase the engine’s life and extend the vehicle’s viability to run for years. The primary aim of a fuel system is to store and supply the fuel to the engine system. 

The components present in the system are Fuel filters, injectors, pumps, lines, and pressure regulators that help to maintain the fuel to be clean from impurities. Negligence of early warning signs could lead to decreased Mileage, fuel pump failure( it needs to be replaced as it is a non-serviceable one), Fuel filters (the removal of impurities) with usage it becomes dirty leading to failure and faulty injectors lead to an array of problems.

Exhaust System

Sometimes you may notice when the noise of the engine is too loud or the emission of harmful toxic fumes from the engine. This happens when your exhaust system faces trouble in operation, this condition increases the consumption of fuel and could result in the emission of toxic gases which could enter the passenger’s cabin. 

The exhaust system with good running conditions extracts the waste by-products from the engine to perform a smooth operation by increasing the fuel economy. 

Coolant System

The idle temperature of the engine is maintained with a liquid coolant which prevents overheating and protects it in extremely hot and cold weather. It’s liable to get rust and corrosion and has chances for Vehicle breakdown when the engine gets overheated. 

The coolant system serves an important function as it cools down by expelling out the excess heat and maintains the engine at the right temperature for smooth functioning. The reasons for the coolant failures are caused due to radiator leakage, corrosion, physical damage and sometimes it can lead to engine failure. 

Instead of spending high maintenance costs for these troubles, you can predict the signs and symptoms through the Prognostic Vehicle health monitoring system to take a quick call to action at the right time whenever the vehicle faces an issue.

How does the Vehicle Health Monitoring system predict the early signs to prevent vehicle downtime?

Why is real-time diagnostics necessary?

Due to the continuous operation of large fleet vehicles for long hours, it may lead to wear and tear problems leading to machine breakdown that takes much time to repair thus resulting in the reduction of machine activity rate. 

When a machine goes for a periodical inspection especially in manual maintenance it needs skilled labor to detect the errors in case of machine failure and takes enormous time to get back to operation and the manual inspection could lead to chaos and confusion. 

Automation decreases manual activity and helps to cut the cost of inspection and maintenance through diagnostics thus increasing the productivity rate.

The productivity rate can be increased by diagnosing with three measures from the vehicle operations by analyzing the estimation of vehicle life, how rigorously the vehicle is operated, and the way the machine is used. 

By collecting data with the help of a controller and sensor helps to self-diagnose the failure and also with the advancement of information technology, it makes it easy to use in mobile communications.

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Sushanthi is a Content Writer who wishes to be the voice of brands to project their innovative ideas and stories through her writing skills.

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