Fault finding M1 & M2 Ryan Farrow S42

1


There are many different factors that affect the reliability of systems, categorised by
environmental and non-environmental.
1. (M1) 4 non-environmental factors would be;
Poor maintenance routine a poor maintenance routine, either not
maintaining the equipment regularly or not giving it a complete look over and
service when it is up for maintenance , would reduce the reliability of the
equipment. This is because without regular maintenance or inspection, little
faults that could easily be found and fixed could grow into larger faults with
time and cause the equipment to fail completely.
Installation by substandard workforce this would significantly reduce the
reliability of the equipment as it would mean that it would not be set up
correctly from the beginning and could possibly be weak, so a tiny fault could
from the beginning could be made potentially bigger over time, leading to a
system failure. This problem would be especially large when exposed to
heavy vibrations, such as freight trains going past.

Fault finding M1 & M2 Ryan Farrow S42
2

Poor quality materials use of poor quality materials during the manufacture
of the equipment would reduce reliability as the would potentially be weaker
and not as accurate, therefore meaning that over a prolonged period of time
the equipment fall apart or break faster than a similar model made of high
quality materials.
Rodent infestation this could damage the reliability of the equipment as
rodents can potentially get into the equipment and cause damAge by chewing
threw cables and building nests within it, meaning without proper maintenance
the equipment would be damaged by rodents living in it for a long time.

2. (M2) 3 Environmental factors would be;
High humidity the reliability of electronic equipment is affected
significantly in high humidity areas, as by looking at the graph of time and
voltage output for sensors tested under different average humidity
conditions, the MTTR of a sensor in 50% humidity is 82500 hours,
compared to in 80% humidity the MTTR is 32500 hours.
Heavy rainfall heavy rainfall can affect the reliability as it can severely
reduce the range of the wireless link to the signal control room, which
would mean that the equipment would be useless. Heavy rainfall can also
Fault finding M1 & M2 Ryan Farrow S42
3

lead to flooding, which could potentially create short circuits and damage
the components. This would increase the failure rate of the sensor.

Terrain- the terrain would also affect the equipment as it would mean the
wireless link could be weakened by big hills or valleys, which would then
mean the failure rate for it would be significantly increased.