The Role of Vibration Monitoring in Predictive Maintenance

Unexpected equipment failures can be expensive and potentially catastrophic, resulting in unplanned production downtime, costly replacement of parts and safety and environmental concerns. Predictive Maintenance (PdM) is a process for monitoring equipment during operation in order to identify any deterioration, enabling maintenance to be planned and operational costs reduced. Rolling bearings are critical components used extensively in rotating equipment and, if they fail unexpectedly, can result in a catastrophic failure with associated high repair and replacement costs. Vibration based condition monitoring can be used to detect and diagnose machine faults and form the basis of a Predictive Maintenance strategy.