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What Is Vibration Analysis & How It Can Help
If you work with machinery and have experienced the effects of bent shafts, misalignment, or bearing faults, you’re likely aware of how many things can go wrong.
The slightest imbalance can cause issues, potentially creating machine downtime and loss of productivity, among other things. This is why vibration analysis is such an important best practice and should be part of any core predictive maintenance program.
Vibration analysis is used in a variety of industries and is prevalent in manufacturing environments.
What Is Vibration Analysis?
Vibration analysis can also be referred to as vibration monitoring, and it is used to measure vibration with equipment to understand the health of machinery. Vibration analysis uses various methods to monitor machinery and many different types of equipment.
This includes a variety of machinery, including rotating machinery and non-rotating machinery. It’s used to identify any vulnerabilities in equipment. If you’ve heard of preventative maintenance, predictive maintenance is the next step for ensuring the longevity of machinery.
Establishing baselines for vibration frequency is key when implementing a predictive maintenance program. Vibration analysis tools, such as vibration sensors are used to measure vibration and detect the slightest changes in vibration patterns.
How Can Vibration Analysis Help?
Vibration analysis can alert you about machine problems you didn’t even know you had. It can provide an understanding of each piece of equipment and give a snapshot view of machine health.
Knowing various types of vibration for the machinery you rely on is critical and condition monitoring machines are essential to operations in many industries that utilize this specialty.
Let’s learn about the benefits of using vibration analysis.
What Are the Benefits of Vibration Analysis?
Imagine if you could know ahead of time that a machine or piece of equipment was going to break down.
Fully understanding a machine includes knowing the machine’s normal vibration readings — this is essential for predictive maintenance.
Avoiding Unplanned Downtime
About $1 trillion is lost annually as a result of machine downtime — the cost of unplanned downtime is real. Implementing vibration analysis can allow you to plan.
Knowing an issue is brewing with your machinery can allow time to order replacement parts and allow for accurate production rate projections.
Lower Maintenance Costs
Performing vibration analysis on a regular, scheduled cadence keeps your machinery finely tuned and reduces unexpected changes in production or high maintenance costs that could have been avoided with a minor part replacement.
Maintaining Production Quality
Quality issues can arise when a predictive maintenance plan is not in place. Conducting vibration analysis will help to ensure that product quality is not compromised.
What Are the Risks of Not Implementing Vibration Analysis?
Failing to implement vibration analysis can certainly take a toll. Here are some of the main risks.
Safety Issues
The cost of implementing a predictive maintenance plan that includes vibration analysis must be weighed out with the costs of potential safety issues.
Without proper condition monitoring, you may be at risk when it comes to ensuring the safety of those working on or around equipment. Aside from the sheer health and safety of employees, injuries also impact staffing and can cause a ripple effect on your operation.
Unnecessary Power Consumption
Higher energy bills are one of the potential hidden risks of not implementing vibration analysis into your machine maintenance program. Power consumption can increase when equipment vibration is outside of normal frequency ranges.
Reducing Equipment Lifespan
Equipment that’s vibrating without being addressed can reduce the lifespan of your machinery — parts can loosen and get worn out if these types of issues go unresolved.
An issue that goes on for long periods can become more costly in the end, by potentially causing a catastrophic failure that goes beyond repair and forces a full replacement of equipment.
What Is the Process for Vibration Analysis?
Vibration analysis is methodical, and a process needs to be established. Vibration analyzers document findings and report on them. A simplified, systematic approach is outlined below.
Collect Data
The collection of vibration data involves evaluating the vibration measurement of machinery under various conditions. This is accomplished using vibration analysis tools such as vibration sensors or accelerometers.
Collecting this data removes subjectivity with machine issues, such as a squeaking noise or a piece of equipment that appears unbalanced. This is why data collection is the first critical step to getting started. The data tells the true story.
Analyze the Data
Data analysis includes generating a time waveform — as the name implies, this reflects the amplitude from the vibration over a period of time. Another metric is showing the amplitude over the frequency — this metric is referred to as the frequency spectrum.
Identification of Patterns
When you have baselines established, it’s easy to see spikes in the data — in this case, when vibration suddenly peak, or slowly trends in a direction, understanding these patterns and trends is critical for predicting equipment faults and failures.
Take Action
The first step is getting started on a predictive maintenance program that includes vibration analysis.
The next most important step is taking action on the findings and acting as soon as equipment faults or abnormalities are detected. Get buy-in from internal stakeholders and take corrective action steps to mitigate risks.
What Can Vibration Analysis Reveal?
Vibration analysis spans many industries and various types of machinery benefit from this important aspect of equipment condition monitoring.
Below is just a sample of the type of equipment issues that vibration analysis can reveal:
- Bearing failures
- Bowed equipment shafts
- Unbalanced equipment
- Loose mechanical parts
- Pump cavitations
- Failures related to gearboxes
- Failures with air compressors
Who Is Qualified To Perform Vibration Analysis?
Vibration monitoring and vibration testing are only as good as the vibration analyst performing the work. Detecting the slightest change in vibration levels can save you from unplanned downtime, prevent breakdowns, and save on maintenance costs in the long run. This is why it’s important to have a trusted vibration analyst who understands natural frequencies and subtle vibration signals.
When starting vibration monitoring, the fundamentals include establishing a baseline on your equipment. This is critical, and having an established data collector allows them to be familiar with each piece of machinery or equipment.
Best practice includes a regularly scheduled cadence of ongoing data collection so that trending data is easily spotted as soon as possible.
Experience Matters
Detecting machinery vibration and finding machine faults is both an art and a science. A skilled vibration analyst can more easily identify irregularities and variances with vibration.
When vibration levels change, detecting when a natural frequency has evolved to a high frequency is an essential skill that’s necessary with any monitoring system.
Partner With Cadence for Vibration Analysis
Cadence supports countless businesses across multiple industries in maintaining their equipment with high-quality petroleum products and operational solutions built to deliver value at every turn.
Our trained and experienced employees strive for safety, integrity, and continuous improvement in our pursuit of excellence.
Contact Cadence at 336-629-2061 to speak with a friendly and knowledgeable staff member about your industrial maintenance needs.
Sources:
World’s Largest Manufacturers Lose $1 Trillion a Year Due to Machine Failure | ISA.org
Data collection and transmission system for vibration test | IEEE.org