Understanding the

benefits of vibration
monitoring and analysis
Application Note

How to implement condition-based maintenance

Many plants still operate with a “run to failure” maintenance strategy. In
this mode, no actions are taken until machinery fails; the maintenance
staff runs from one disaster to another. Maintenance costs and
production losses are high.

analysis, which don’t require Benefits of early vibration

tearing a machine down to testing include:
find out its condition. When a • Predictability. Give mainte-
machine condition fault comes nance staff time to schedule
up, a repair is scheduled when required repairs and acquire
it’s needed—not before and not needed parts.
too late. • Safety. Take faulty equipment
offline before a hazardous
Early indicators of condition occurs.
machine health • Revenue. Incur fewer unex-
pected and serious failures,
Several technologies are used to
helping to prevent production
measure and diagnose machine
stoppages that cut into the
health. Two of the most important
bottom line.
are vibration testing and infrared
• Increased maintenance inter-
thermography. The graph shows
vals. Extend life of equipment
how you can detect changes first
and schedule maintenance by
with vibration testing, then with
need.
infrared thermography. Only later
Some companies have tran- on—shortly before machine fail-
sitioned to preventive, or ure—can you hear audible noise
calendar-based, maintenance. and feel heat.
Actions are scheduled regard-
less of the actual condition of the
equipment. With this approach,
fault-free machines can be
repaired unnecessarily, leading to
higher program costs.
Over the past 30 years, the
US Navy and many Fortune
500 companies transitioned
from preventive maintenance to
condition-based maintenance.
With condition-based mainte-
nance, machines are measured
with methods such as vibration

F ro m t h e F l u k e D i g i t a l L i b r a r y @ w w w. f l u k e . c o m / l i b r a r y
• Reliability. Incur fewer unex- We can simplify it down to a Analyzing roller bearing
pected or catastrophic failures three-step process. faults
because problem areas can be 1. Identify vibration peaks as
anticipated before failure. they relate to a source compo- Bearing frequencies are non-
• Peace of mind. Build con- nent on the machine. synchronous. The geometry of the
fidence in maintenance 2. Look for patterns in the data balls, cage, and races show up
schedules, budgeting, and pro- based on vibration rules. at different speeds; these speeds
ductivity estimates. 3. Measure the amplitude of the are not a multiple of shaft speed.
vibration peak to determine In most cases, non-synchronous
Mechanics of vibration the severity of the fault. peaks are roller bearings. Most
testing vibration programs use the fol-
Once the fault and severity are lowing bearing frequencies:
A transducer picks up vibration determined, you can recommend • inner race
signals from bearing locations a repair and generate a work • outer race
and transmits these signals to a order. • cage
data collection device. Here are • ball spin
a few important things to note Bearing faults and Snap ring
about the mechanics of vibration failures Seal/sheld
groove

testing: groove and

A study conducted by the SKF notch
• All rotating equipment gener- Ball
Group tracked the life of 30 iden-
ates a unique vibration signal
tical bearings and found a wide
or signature.
variation in bearing life. This Cage
• These unique signals are usu-
precludes the use of an effec-
ally captured in series, with
tive calendar-based maintenance
the signal’s amplitude (y-axis) Outside Inner race
program. Bore
depicted over time (x-axis). diameter
Another study found that Inner ring
This is called a time waveform.
bearing faults can account for
• The waveform contains infor-
over 60 percent of mechanical
mation about the machine
faults. Although bearings are a
at the point of measure- Inner
major contributor to mechanical ring face
Outer race
ment. Vibration comes from
problems, sometimes bearing
the rotating shaft, adjacent
faults are the result of a sepa- Outer Outer ring
machines, foundation, noise, ring face
rate underlying problem, such
rotating components, structural
as unbalance. Some custom-
resonances, flow turbulences,
ers replace bearings every
and other sources.
few months until they learn to The graph shows an example of
• However, the patterns of
balance and align the machine— data with a bearing fault. Notice
different events are over-
then bearings will last for years. that the vibration peak from the
lapped and jumbled together.
Bearings fail because of: shaft is at 1 times the shaft speed
Separating and isolating one
• poor installation (1,775 RPM). Four pump impeller
vibration signal from another
• poor lubrication vanes and seven motor cooling
is complicated.
• contamination fan blades are within the system.
• Frequency analysis performed
• wear/fatigue A large vibration peak occurs at
in the data collector simpli-
• other faults 3.56 times shaft speed. It cannot
fies the waveform into certain
repetitive patterns. Fast Fourier A roller bearing—also called a have 3.56 fan blades or 3.56
Transform (FFT) is a math- rolling-element bearing—carries pump vanes.
ematical algorithm performed a load by placing round ele-
by the vibration testing tool to ments between the two pieces.
separate individual vibration Most machines today have roller
signals. bearings
• Spectrum is the plot of each
of these individual signals on
a simple plot of amplitude (y
axis) against frequency (x axis).

2 Fluke Corporation Understanding the benefits of vibration monitoring and analysis

 The nine stages of bearing wear
More than 4700 rules exist for machine faults.
These rules are based on analyzing patterns seen
in rotating machinery, and are built into the diag-
nostic engine in the Fluke 810 Vibration Tester. The
most common faults are unbalance, misalignment,
looseness, and bearing failures. The nine stages
below show pattern changes as bearing wear
progresses.

1. Early bearing wear in the high range only.

2. Non-synchronous peaks in the low range. 6. Bearing tone and motor shaft sidebands.

3. Increased non-synchronous peak. 7. Noise hump near bearing tone.

4. Harmonic of bearing tone. 8. Increase of entire noise floor.

5. Looseness—harmonics of motor shaft. 9. Bearing failure.

3 Fluke Corporation Understanding the benefits of vibration monitoring and analysis

Traditional bearing If that is the case, determine (force or angle), which yields
analysis whether someone replaced the accurate, repeatable readings.
bearing with one from another This meter has a four-level sever-
How does a vibration analyst vendor without updating the ity scale and onboard processor
find bad bearings? The analyst maintenance records. that calculate bearing condi-
first looks at the complex wave- tion and overall vibration using
forms. It takes years of training in Vibration pens, meters, easy-to-understand textual alerts
waveform analysis and years of
experience to do this.
and testers (Good, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory,
Unacceptable). Its sensors can
Another technique exists, but The most basic tool for check- read a wide range of frequen-
it is time consuming: Contact the ing vibration is the vibration cies (10 to 1,000 Hz and 4,000
bearing manufacturer and get a pen. With a vibration pen, you to 20,000 Hz), covering most
table of the bearing frequencies. can measure specific variables machine and component types.
Then you can overlay the fre- such as bearing condition and The 805’s straightforward user
quencies to see whether they line temperature. interface minimizes user inputs to
up with the non-synchronous When you move up to a RPM range and equipment type.
peaks that you find in the data. If vibration meter, you have the An advanced vibration test-
they line up, then you have found capability to measure overall ing tool, the Fluke 810 Vibration
the bearing fault. If they don’t line vibration in addition to specific Tester, has a diagnostic engine
up, you probably have a different variables. The Fluke 805 Vibra- that combines algorithms with a
bearing than expected. tion Meter has a combination database of real-world measure-
vibration and force sensor tip that ment experience.
compensates for user variance

Fluke. The Most Trusted Tools

in the World.

Fluke Corporation
PO Box 9090, Everett, WA 98206 U.S.A.
Fluke Europe B.V.
PO Box 1186, 5602 BD
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
For more information call:
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Web access: http://www.fluke.com
©2013 Fluke Corporation.
Specifications subject to change without notice.
Printed in U.S.A. 5/2013 4332316A_EN

Modification of this document is not permitted

without written permission from Fluke Corporation.

4 Fluke Corporation Understanding the benefits of vibration monitoring and analysis