Analytical approach to product reliability estimation: a case study of automotive clutch system

The study of reliability is an important part of engineering design process which forms the basis of analysis and judgement on future performance of the product. Since the future could not be predicted with an absolute certainty, the nature of reliability would lead us to probability theory and uncertainty modelling. The quantitative calculation of this parameter for mechanical systems within different steps of production requires an analytical and systematic approach which has been focused in this paper. The proposed approach has been applied for calculating reliability of a clutch system as a case study. The system reliability in this work is determined based on the block diagram method as a function of individual component reliabilities which are calculated by statistical analysis of life test results. Using Weibull model, reliability of a typical clutch system has been formulated based on durability bench test and results have been interpreted to estimate field reliability.