Patent ID: 7089154

Claim:
A method of automatic fault diagnosis including: for each of a plurality of components of machines, carrying out the steps of: for at least one possible fault in the component: calculating for each of a plurality of symptoms for indicating a fault, a symptom value and a symptom severity value as the function of a reduced data set calculated from measured data as a measure of the deviation of the measured data from base line values; obtaining a total fault symptom strength value from the symptom value and the symptom severity value indicating the strength of the fault; and determining whether the total fault symptom strength value lies above a first predetermined value for that fault, recalling stored data relating to the total fault system strength value as a function of time, fitting the stored data to a trend line and predicting the time when the total fault symptom strength value will exceed a second predetermined value, selecting a message based on the total fault symptom strength value and the predicted time, and outputting the selected message.