Integrating Oil & Vibration Analysis
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Integrating Oil & Vibration Analysis To Enhance Today's Condition Monitoring Programs
by James E. Berry
Abstract
As its title suggests, this paper discusses how combining both oil & vibration analysis within a plant PDM program can and will improve its results. A list of the strengths and weaknesses of each technology is given. A detailed description is given of the most common indications given by each technology at each stage of bearing failure. A summary towards the end of the paper lists those machine types whose condition is best accessed by adding oil analysis to a PDM program. The paper concludes with a list of common characteristics of an effective PDM team.
PREVIEW
“Discussion:
Today’s condition monitoring programs that wish to advance towards true ‘Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) must incorporate more than one technology into their diagnostic tool kits. No longer can an organization expect to accomplish this while “putting all their eggs into one technological basket”.
At one time, most condition monitoring programs included only vibration analysis. And, in so doing, these programs were typically at least moderately successful, particularly if their condition monitoring teams received professional training, which is vitally needed in order to truly become proficient in the vibration analysis technology.
To be frank, at one time, the author of this paper was one of those who felt virtually every machine type could be effectively evaluated and faults reliably detected on components within these machines by vibration analysis alone. That is, we felt if every available vibration analysis tool was deployed, it could “tackle the whole job” (including FFT, time waveform analysis, synchronous time averaging, true order tracking, phase analysis, amplitude demodulation, stress wave analysis, operating deflection shape analysis, modal analysis, etc.). True enough, vibration analysis was eventually successful in being capable of detecting problems and effectively evaluating the condition of some of the more complex machinery types including centrifugal air compressors, rotary screw air compressors, roots blowers, multi-stage gearboxes, AC and DC motors, paper machines, turbine/generators, boiler feed pumps, vertical pumps, low-speed agitators, rolling mills, machine tools, etc.
However, Oil Analysis has been found to be a potent weapon and excellent complementary technology to Vibration Analysis. Following below is a sample of faults or problem conditions for which Oil Analysis improves problem detection and severity evaluation:
Around the mid-1970’s, the vibration analysis technology truly began making inroads in rotating machinery fault detection with the development of the FFT spectrum analyzer. Later, in the early 1980’s, when FFT analysis became available in portable, hand-held data collectors virtually at the same time that condition monitoring software was developed to handle the data acquired by them, a virtual explosion began to take place with thousands of plants beginning to perform vibration analysis that rarely before had even employed the technology.”
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