As one of the key functional components of computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools, the reliability of motorized spindles has an important impact on the reliability of CNC machine tools [
1]. For complex electromechanical and hydraulic products, such as motorized spindles, a reliability test is the only way to verify the reliability level of a motorized spindle and expose its weak links. Because the reliability level of a motorized spindle is high, it is usually necessary to carry out accelerated tests to evaluate its reliability. However, the traditional accelerated life test (ALT) [
2] aims to obtain the failure data, and then evaluate the reliability of the product, and improve the reliability design according to the evaluation results, so as to improve the reliability of the product. However, with the development of science and technology, the reliability level of motorized spindles is constantly improving. This traditional accelerated life test method has been unable to obtain enough fault data of motorized spindle in a short time, and then cannot obtain an accurate reliability level for motorized spindles. ADT can product failure or performance degradation in a short time by applying higher-than-normal stress in the test, and evaluate the reliability of the product under normal stress levels by analyzing and processing the data [
3,
4]. ADT not only overcomes the disadvantages of the traditional ALT, but also overcomes the disadvantage that ALT only records fault data, so that a reliability evaluation can be carried out under the condition of zero fault [
5].
Although ADT has a high test efficiency, in order to obtain higher efficiency and reduce test costs, it is usually necessary to optimize the test factors in ADT before test, including sample size, stress level, test time and constraint conditions. In 1962, Chernoff [
6] first carried out research on the optimization design of accelerated tests. He studied the optimization design of constant stress accelerated test schemes with an exponential distribution of product life, and gave a theoretical framework for the optimization design of accelerated tests. On the basis of this theoretical framework, Nelson and Meeker [
4,
7,
8,
9,
10,
11] introduced model constraints into the optimization model to improve the theoretical framework of the optimization method. By studying the variation in stress level, sample ratio and asymptotic variance with the model parameters in the experiment, they obtained an optimization scheme which is insensitive to model parameters. However, these studies assume that an object is subjected to a single stress, but a product is often subject to multiple stresses in practice. Therefore, in recent years, scholars have expanded the research content from single stress to multiple stresses. Park [
12] applied the idea of single stress optimal design (two stress levels) to an object under the action of two kinds of stresses, researched the optimal design of life distribution obeying the generalized Eyring law, and obtained an optimal scheme based on the factor arrangement of the test points method. Elsayed [
13] used the same method to obtain an optimal scheme under the proportional risk model. However, the optimization scheme obtained by this method is highly sensitive to changes in model parameters, and this method only contains two stress levels, which cannot meet the needs of application. Therefore, Hu [
14] extended stress levels in SSADT from two to more, and proved the effectiveness of this method under the condition of constraints. Lim [
15] studied the validity between model parameters and stress variables, and obtained a method of how to select stress levels in an accelerated test scheme with multiple stress levels. Ge [
16] studied the selection of stress levels for multi-stress SSADT under the constraints of test samples and test times. In order to further improve test efficiency, reduce the test sample size and apply to more kinds of products, scholars have expanded the research content from single stress level selection to more test factors. Tsai [
17] and Tung [
18] researched the ADT optimization method for the degradation process following a gamma process. Mosavebi [
19] researched an optimal sample ratio under each sample size and the influence of each stress on the objective function. Sun [
20] researched the optimal stress level change time in SSADT, and Li [
21] determined the optimal sample size under each stress level, based on different expected utility functions. Wang [
22,
23] researched the optimization design method of an ADT scheme for multiple degradation processes under multiple stresses using a simulation method. Li [
24] researched the optimization design method of ADT when prior information is insufficient, and used the information theory to dynamically modify the test scheme, which effectively shortened the test time. Wang [
25] proposed a new optimization criterion, which pays more attention to the equivalence of the degradation mechanism, rather than the evaluation accuracy and prediction accuracy. The optimization results of the criterion were compared with the existing criteria. The results showed that the criterion can effectively reduce the stress distance between the normal stress level and the higher stress level, and caused the test arrangement to be more in line with the practical application. For an object with an uncertain degradation mechanism, Zhao [
26] used the competitive failure model to research the optimization method of ADT schemes for products with multiple failure mechanisms, and optimized the established model by using three conventional optimization criteria (
D-optimality, a-optimality and v-optimality). The results showed that the optimal scheme under random impact was very different from the traditional ADT optimization scheme. Yu [
27] and others have also carried out research on this kind of object. They proposed an improved Bayesian
D-optimality criterion to solve this kind of problem, and verified the effectiveness of the method through simulations. In order to maximize the efficiency of the ADT test, Jiang [
28] optimized the test method to maximize the test stress, and took carbon film resistors as an example to verify the effectiveness of the method. Ma [
29] mixed ALT and ADT to reduce test costs to the greatest extent while ensuring accuracy. Wang [
30] proposed a multi-stress and multi-degradation ADT optimization design method to solve the problem that the existing single degradation measure ADT cannot be applied to expensive and high reliability products. The proposed method, with the evaluation accuracy of the optimization scheme as the optimization objective, along with the stress, stress level, sample size, detection interval and detection time as the optimization variables, the detection time and cost as the constraints, and the product with multiple degradation measures, was studied, and the effectiveness of the method was verified using a rubber sealed O-ring.
However, the above literature regarding the optimization of multi-stress ADT are all about the stress level, sample size, test time and degradation mode. Instead of considering the effect of different stresses on the product, the multiple stresses were directly optimized with the same influence value or influence weight, which leads to the problem of low evaluation accuracy of model parameters of important stresses when using the degradation data generated by the optimized scheme for reliability evaluations. In addition, the main examples of the above ADT scheme optimization methods are electronic components or mechanical products with simple structures, and there are no complex mechanical and electrical products, such as motorized spindles. Therefore, aiming at the problem of how to carry out the multi-stress ADT optimization design of motorized spindles, this paper puts forward an optimization design method of an accelerated test scheme based on -optimality.
In this paper, based on
-optimality, an optimization method of model parameter accuracy focusing on important stress, is proposed to solve the problem of model parameter evaluation in the ADT of motorized spindles subjected to various stresses. In
Section 2, the sensitive stress of a motorized spindle is obtained through SSADT test profile analysis and FTA analysis of the motorized spindle. In
Section 3, based on the previous data and the characteristics of motorized spindles, the performance degradation and acceleration model is proposed, and the accelerated degradation model of motorized spindles is established. In
Section 4, based on
-optimality, the optimization objective of this method is established and the solving process is given. In
Section 5, the effectiveness of the method is proved by taking a certain type of motorized spindle made in China as an example, and the results are compared with those of
D-optimality. In
Section 6, the sensitivity of the model parameters in the case is analyzed, and proves the proposed method has good robustness.
Section 7 concludes this paper.