A mechinery fault diagnosis expert system based on case-based reasoning (CBR) technology was established. The process of the CBR fault diagnosis is analyzed from three main aspects: expression and memory, retrieving and matching, and modification and maintenance of a case. The results indicate that the CBR method is flexible and simple to implement, and it has strong self-studying ability. Using a large enough number of case reasoning sets, it can accumulate the experience of problem solving, avoid the difficulty of knowledge acquisition, shorten the course of solving problems, improve efficiency of reasoning, and save the time of developing. The process of the CBR fault diagnosis is analyzed from three main aspects: expression and memory, retrieving and matching, and modification and maintenance of a case. The results said that the CBR method is flexible and simple to implement, and it has strong self-studying ability. Using a large enough number of case reasoning sets, it can accumulate the experience of problem solving, avoid the difficulty of knowledge acquisition, shorten the course of solving problems, improve efficiency of reasoning, and save the time of developing.