Vibration monitoring and sustained analysis of rotating machinery

Vibration monitoring and analysis is a vast component of predictive maintenance programmes in plants with a lot of rotating equipment. Anyone in the industry has heard stories about the “old way” of performing vibration testing.

These are individuals who have been in the industry for over 30 years. They have probably seen some of the old ways to test if vibration on a piece of equipment is excessive. The old way only indicated if the vibration was excessive and nothing else.

But nowadays there is special equipment for vibration monitoring, which not only indicates whether the vibration is excessive, but also stores the analysis, separating the vibration into frequencies, so that the fault can be identified by experimental analysis.

Vibration readings can be made by:

• Displacement (mm, in),
• Speed (mm/s, in/s),
• Acceleration (g), and
• High frequency acceleration data input.

All vibration measurements used to identify fault possibilities allow for a more accurate diagnosis and can point the repair team in the right direction to complete the repair. This allows for reduced repair downtime and would improve plant production and maintenance.

Vibration and condition monitoring programmes can be scheduled for rotating equipment based on weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or even quarterly routes. Identifying condition status by general amplitude vibration trends to include specific frequencies will allow the analyst to provide plant personnel with early warning of developing faults.

A good vibration monitoring programme also tests the repaired equipment to verify acceptable vibration conditions and report on whether the equipment will have continued availability and reliability. In many cases, it is preferable to receive the extra benefits of a “walk-away” vibration monitoring programme.

The vibration analyst has the right tools at his disposal

The person collecting vibration data should also use the natural senses, i.e. vision, hearing, smell and taste. The use of the senses can provide valuable information to consider when conducting the analysis. A comprehensive vibration monitoring programme, using all available technology and human senses, increases the reliability of plant and rotating equipment.

Given all the vibration monitoring technology and analytical skills of the analyst, it would be of no use if the identification and explanation of the faults found cannot be presented in a report. vibration analysis understandable.

But on the other hand, even though vibration monitoring technologies have been around for more than 40 years, you can still find people sceptical of the information from the “vibration guy”. For some it is as if fault diagnosis comes from a crystal ball.

A very early repair call and undiscernible failures that could be observed with the naked eye would cause the analyst to be accused of making a bad call. A very late repair call may lead to secondary damage developing, which decreases the life of the equipment.

The preventive maintenance is synonymous with reliability, as well as a tool that reliability or maintenance engineers depend on for cost savings that give industrial plants competitive advantages.

Technicians in predictive maintenance use many technologies that provide plants with the information needed to identify faults. When used as intended, it can bring quality to the production process and reliability to equipment.

We invite you to learn how condition monitoring solutions work for the mining sector, as well as to find out what the condition monitoring equipment that improves the efficiency of field maintenance work. If you are interested in learning more about condition monitoring, subscribe to our newsletter.