Noise & Vibrations, as an engineering product development tool, emerged and evolved during the early 19th century. While the tool was primarily intended for automotive industry and its refinement, the space and aerospace industries took full advantage of this technology to design and validate their products which had higher criticality and product endurance requirements as compared to automotive industry.
Developments in the computer technologies, higher number crunching capabilities, combined with mathematical advances such as Fourier analysis and its potential to look through the dynamic responses of the mechanical systems, took Noise and Vibration to many application areas, one such was machine tools and its condition monitoring.
Vibration based health monitoring of rotating equipment has come a long way in establishing itself as a proven tool of condition monitoring; vibration signatures gathered carefully from the bearing housing locations of the rotating equipment with stabilised operating conditions and further trended for their growth over scheduled intervals of time, yields a great amount of information of the equipment being monitored.
Vibration time data descriptors
From unbalance to mis-alignment, from bearing condition to mechanical looseness, vibration-based condition monitoring can bring out a variety of health indicators, based on which both preventive and predictive maintenance actions can be initiated. With correct practices of data collection, knowledge of the engineering team involved both of the equipment and the tools being used, vibration based condition monitoring has proven to be invaluable tool of maintenance engineers world over.
Vibration severity for different classes of machines
Sadly, many industries use condition monitoring tools and practices to comply with the quality management systems and meet the audit requirements. The genuinity of the entire process is compromised, resulting in continued unwarranted breakdown of rotating equipment and many of their critical sub-systems.
Unwillingness of the industry to invest in good engineering personal, hardware and software tools that help in conducting vibration condition monitoring are all making the practice more a ritual than any value addition.
However, with the advent of IoT and AI and their implementation into predictive maintenance and condition monitoring, both the cost and engineering skill sets required for health assessment of rotating equipment are fast becoming both feasible and affordable. With capabilities of remote monitoring, automatic alarms and many self-learning capabilities, the industry can look forward to optimistic monitoring and maintenance practices to be put in place in the near future.
NV Dynamics has practiced qualitative processes and methods since its inception, to give the predictive maintenance a true value it deserves; from band selectable frequency analysis to envelope and kurtosis analysis, we have put the best available tools into use and have helped industries to realise the true value addition that condition monitoring brings to them.
Know more about our service offerings on our website NV Dynamics or contact us on +91 77603 81818 to discuss with one of our machinery vibration experts.