The use of vibration spectrum analysis as a tool for mechanical fault diagnosis

The present economic climate has caused the Sugar Industry to review many areas of operations. Maintenance has long been a major consumer of resources, and reviews in this area prompted the Bundaberg Sugar Company to enter the field of Condition Monitoring with the initial emphasis on Vibration Monitoring. The condition monitoring industry has given birth to a multitude of schemes, programs, software packages and measuring devices. Using this Technology in conjunction with appropriate mechanical vibration standards, enables alarms and limits of allowable vibration levels to be set. These alarms and limits tell the operator that something is wrong but usually do not define what the problem is. This paper looks at diagnosing a number of case studies by interpreting data from the vibration spectrum, a topic Domanti et al. (1985) introduced with particular emphasis on bearing condition monitoring.