To analysis the mechanical reliability of the permanent magnetic actuator, the life test of permanent magnetic actuator is carried out and the related parameters are measured. Traditional reliability evaluations are generally based on the failure life data. Due to the small samples of the life test, the performance degradation method is applied in this paper.
By analyzing the degradation path of the related parameter during the life test, the parameters which can represent the reliability of permanent magnetic actuator are selected. The pseudo failure lifetime data is calculated by the degradation path. The reliability distribution model can be obtained from the performance degradation data. Compared with the distribution model obtained from the lifetime test data, the variation rules are consistent. The result shows that the performance degradation data can be used to analyze the reliability of permanent magnetic actuator effectively.