RECLAIM | RE-manufaCturing and Refurbishment LArge Industrial equipMent

Volunteers from FEUP, CERTH, and UNI collaborated to compile all the technical and standard data for the formulation of the technical specification based on the specifications specified by the pilots' leaders. A full explanation of the use cases and the machines involved in the refurbishment, remanufacturing, and retrofitting during the RECLAIM project has been developed using the needs that were determined during the information gathering phase. The matrix of requirements for the identification of the prospective issues to be the challenge at the RECLAIM project has been finished by the industrial partners Gorenje, Fluchos, Podium, Harms & Wende, and Zorlutek. The demand and gap in the standardised field were included in these matrices, which is a crucial factor to consider the technical solution in the future. UNI carried out the standardised analysis plan from the input data given by other partners involved in this endeavour. 

The main standardisation gaps to be considered during the RECLAIM project were: Monitoring Sensors: Alignment verification, quality and density of water pipeline, energy consumption of the furnace, real time monitoring; Predictive Maintenance: Definition of standards to predict shutdown; Human Error: Need of standardized procedure to record spare parts.

Standardisation helps the end client to have complete knowledge of the equipment's lifespan, which increases dependability and enables servitisation (for example, leasing) towards machine resale. The standardisation criteria that are described by RECLAIM centre on two key subjects: (1) maintenance procedures and predictive maintenance, together with (2) specifications and design for remanufacturing.

The standards that are proposed by RECLAIM are the "CWA 17492:2020-Predictive control and maintenance of data intensive industrial processes" standard, which focuses on predictive maintenance, defines machine learning / deep learning techniques for predicting process and equipment drifts, thereby providing recommendations on when to perform maintenance and the state of the machine. A set of key performance indicators is defined in "EN 15341:2019-Maintenance-Maintenance Key Performance Indicators" to quantify and improve the efficacy, efficiency, and sustainability of maintenance actions for physical assets. “prEN 17485-Maintenance-Maintenance within physical asset management-Framework for improving the value of the physical assets through their whole life cycle” and “EN16646:2015-Maintenance-Maintenance within physical asset management” introduce the physical asset management and address the role and importance of maintenance within physical asset management system during the whole life cycle of an item. The maintenance process is depicted by all the characteristics and steps of the stated processes in "EN 17007:2018-Maintenance process and associated indicator," along with the construction of a maintenance model that provides instructions for defining indicators. This is a crucial step in standardising the entire maintenance procedure. By doing so, all the maintained equipment will be comparable to one another, allowing lifetime extension tactics to be eventually more accurate in their analysis. The "ANSI RIC001.1-2016-Specifications for The Process of Remanufacturing" standard, which focuses on the definition of remanufacturing and clearly distinguishes it from other activities, is one that addresses remanufacturing standards. Additionally, it offers a benchmark, specification, and characterisation of the remanufacturing process.