Vibration Condition Monitoring is a widely recognised method of identifying and indicating early signs of deterioration, or malfunction in plant machinery through surveillance testing and analysis. Carrying out regular scheduled Vibration Condition Monitoring can greatly help reduce the possibility of catastrophic failures, increasing safety and machine performance. There are many conditions that can give rise to machine failure and reliability issues, most of which are detectable and most are preventable, particularly in machines where there are moving parts. Some of the most common causes of failure on site have been listed below:
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Worn/aged Bearings
- Bearing Failure (ball race issues)
- Unbalanced parts
- Misaligned elements
- Loose mechanical arrangements
- Drive Belts & chain drive– Pulleys, cogs.
- Gearbox Faults
- Electrical Supply & Motor faults
- Pump imbalances and bearing wear
- Machine Resonance
Basing maintenance activities on actual condition rather than on a predetermined time schedule can progress maintenance work to a new level of efficiency. It hs been found that conditioning monitoring results in improved equipment availability and more efficient operation for longer periods of time. Faster and more confident maintenance decisions and a significant reduction in work orders is a motivating factor for the maintenance crew. With advance warning of machine failures, unexpected breakdowns can be substituted with planned repairs, allowing more time to be spent identifying areas for further improvement in terms of machine performance, energy efficiency or output.
Benefits include to you:
- Increased up-time/reduced downtime
- Reduction/elimination of unplanned failures
- Elimination of catastrophic failures.
- Reduced overall maintenance costs
- Improved equipment performance
- Increased asset life
- Lower machine noise emissions (occupational noise and environmental noise applications)
- Prioritised maintenance actions
- Increased efficiency of maintenance management
- Avoiding opening up of equipment at fixed intervals
The Mobius Institue has prepared many educational videos on the subject of machine vibration. Please click on the link below for an introduction to machine vibration analysis.
