Operational behaviour and profit function for a bleaching and screening system in the paper industry

Abstract This paper discusses the bleaching and screening system (each having four subsystems) in the paper industry with three states: good, reduced and failed. The failure rate for each subsystem is constant while the repair rates are arbitrary. Mathematical formulation is carried out using the supplementary variable technique. The equations are solved using direct integration method. Expressions and graphs for steady state availability and mean time to system failure (MTSF) are given, depicting the effect of failure and repair rates. Profit analysis is also carried out.