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Vibration Analysis

It has been shown many times over that the vibration of an operating machine provides far more information about the inner workings of that machine than any other type of non-destructive test. A bearing that has a small developing fault will cause a tell-tale change in the machine's vibration, as will a weight imbalance condition, a shaft or coupling misalignment, or any of a myriad of other faults.

With virtually all manufacturing plants are seeking reductions in plant maintenance manpower, as well as greater efficiency of all maintenance practices, the value of vibration analysis has become more obvious in recent years. Vibration analysis provides a thorough evaluation of all moving parts of one's plant equipment and machinery, can identify root causes as well as specific machine faults, and most importantly, is capable of correctly identifying those machine faults when or actually before they first appear.

Diagnostic Advantages Of Vibration Analysis
Vibration analysis, properly applied, allows the detection of small developing mechanical defects long before they become a threat to the integrity of the machine, and thus provides the necessary lead time to suit the needs and schedules of the plant operators / management. In this way, plant management has control over the machines, rather than the other way around. Properly applied, vibration analysis offers the following significant benefits:

	Safety - failure of mechanical components could be catastrophic, injuring or even killing employees, maintenance personnel or the public.
	Greater System Security - locate the problems prior to failure greatly reduces unscheduled outages, associated equipment damage and downtime.
	Increased Revenue - with more uptime, revenue is maximized. With less maintenance on good components and faster repairs of faulty components, maintenance cost cares are reduced leading to a better bottom line.
	Eliminate if not reduce Breakdown Costs - the cost of an emergency breakdown is ten times greater than planned maintenance.
	Reduce Spare Parts Inventory – knowing the root cause of possible failure and plan the repair, giving advanced warning of failure, fewer spare parts are required in inventory. What would it mean to the bottom line if your spare parts inventory could be reduced by 10%?
	Reduced Operational Costs - with the system up and running for longer periods of time, the reduction and improvement of inspections, maintenance, spare parts inventory and breakdowns will reduce the overall cost of operations.
	Fully utilise OEM warranty – not all new machines operate as we expect, there can be problem with the installation procedure or bearing application. With a proper commissioning and monitoring, Identifying the upcoming problem and documenting it we can now maximized the OEM warranty.

Recommended Levels of Testing
In order to get the best results from a vibration analysis program, regular equipment testing is required. When the program is first set up it will generally provide only a small set of data to evaluate. In the worst case, there may be only one set of reference data from only one individual piece of equipment. At best, a number of examples of the same given machine type will provide a larger sample of data for analysis and comparison. As each machine is re-tested and another cycle of data collected, the accuracy for evaluating equipment condition will improve.

Clearly, a successful vibration program is dependant upon an accurate accumulation of data over time. How often data should be collected is generally dictated by how critical your equipment is to your specific operation. Each time a reading is performed on a particular piece of equipment, the success rate of your vibration analysis program increases and the better your chances are of allowing yourself to forecast equipment problems, schedule corrective action and avoid catastrophic failure. Generally speaking, in most applications, the minimum data collecting frequency is monthly. Quarterly testing may be appropriate to some non-critical equipment types.

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