Abstract
Reliability means that a product maintains its initial quality and performance at a certain period of time (time, distance, cycle etc) under given condition without failure. The given conditions include both environmental condition and operating condition. Environmental condition means a common natural environment such as temperature, humidity, vibration, and working condition means an artificial environment such as voltage, current load, place for installment, and hours of use, which occurs during the life of the product. In the field of railway vehicles, it is mandatory to use a part with the proved reliability as the extension of the life of vehicle become highly necessary. But the reliable assessment method for the reliability of the part is insufficient. If the reliability of the railway vehicle parts could be assessed by using the field data, the reliability of the entire system could also be evaluated reliably. In this study, life span of micro-switch for master controller is analyzed and prediction is performed based on its field data given by an operator considering the special circumstances of railway vehicles such as the operation of a large number of trains on the same line.