Chapters 7-10 provide a rich collection of materials for mechanical reliability. Coverage is given to strength-based reliability and the computation of reliability using interference theory. The use of experimentally determined distributions for the reliability analysis of components is also presented. Chapter 9 includes a discussion of reliability design of some specific mechanical components and systems while Chapter 10 presents the methods of analyzing structural reliability, including weakest link and fail-safe systems. It is noted that reliability engineering requires the trade-off among various factors, such as reliability, cost, weight, volume, etc.
System reliability is shown to also include consideration of maintainability and availability.
The reader is guided to the view that reliability engineering as a discipline requires an integrated program of testing. Chapter 12 shows how to analyze the reliability of maintainable systems and repairable systems. Chapter 15 describes how to determine whether a system can operate satisfactorily through testing. Many important types of reliability testing and techniques for data analysis are presented. The material on probability plotting would seem to be placed too late in book and it would be useful to the student to have it in the early chapters.