The increasing hazard rate model is widely used in estimating reliabil
ity of mechanical items. The common life distributions such as Weibul,
normal, and log-normal allow for strictly increasing hazard rates. In
this paper we propose a composite hazard rate model which is constant
over a period of unknown duration, and then strictly increases after
the threshold value. In reliability engineering graphical regression m
ethods are used to estimate unknown parameters. We investigate the per
formance of two such estimators. Comparisons are made using Monte Carl
o simulation. Applications of some real world problems are given.