Vibration Analysis; an Indication of Equipment Health
When you reflect upon the fact that vibration is the sole technology with the capacity to definitely tell you what forces abound inside industrial machinery such as pumps, turbines, rotating motor frame and so on, you can clearly understand why it is certainly a powerful technology. Industrial vibrating equipment serves to identify, forecast, and avert failure in industrial machinery. Today, many industry professionals rely on information obtained via vibration examination as the best sign of equipment health status.
This article analyses how industrial vibrating equipment works and why plant owners and industry managers should adopt vibration analysis as the core of their predictive maintenance program:
What is critical speed?
Industrial machines are usually designed to work optimally at a particular speed. Accelerating or lessening the operational speed usually causes the machinery to operate at a speed equivalent to its natural frequency. Critical speed is characterised by extremely high vibration and occurs when rotating machinery runs at a speed that corresponds to its inherent frequency.
Consider the sound you hear when a bell is hit with a hammer. The reverberating sound is the bell's inherent frequency or resonance, following the strike by the hammer. When a component is excited and pulsates at its inherent frequency, the condition is referred to as in resonance. Industrial components have their respective natural frequencies and so do the motorised framework on which they are installed. When a component operates at its critical speed, it is bound to pulsate severely.
At times, it energises the mounting structure's inherent frequency causing the whole component as well as the structure to shake violently. This causes untimely failed bearings and weakened supports. Continued vibration causes the eventual mechanical collapse of the industrial component leading to costly downtime.
Vibration monitoring
Plant owners should make use of industrial vibrating equipment to identify the critical speeds in their industrial processes. The vibration monitoring switch is a common and useful monitoring device for commercial use. When mounted on industrial machinery, the vibrating monitor characterises the normal operational speed or vibration level. This information offers a direct time domain illustration of the machinery's vibration.
In case the vibration capacity of the machinery being supervised surpasses the preset vibration limit of the monitoring equipment, an alarm may be triggered to alert the operators of component failure or potential wear. Furthermore, the information may be used to conduct immediate shutdown and repairs. This means that destructive speed ranges are easily identified so the machinery doesn't operate at critical speeds.
Contact a company such as VSS - Vibration Systems & Solutions (Australia) to learn more.
