Continuous monitoring of industrial processes or manufacturing equipment using vibration analysis opens a unique and extremely effective method of identifying process variation or failing equipment. Its effectiveness is based in the fact that a vibration spectrum is unique to a specific process and it is immune to background/ambient noise. Low cost monitoring equipment is programmed to view the spectrum (peaks in the data) and monitor for changes in frequency and/or amplitude that is indicative of a change in process performance. Examples of successful monitoring projects that eliminated adverse failures include:
Continuous monitoring reduces process variation, improves product quality and safety, and reduces labor content in identifying and managing failures.
Machine condition and product quality are tracked using vibration analysis of key components. Permanently mounted sensors provide input into a simple signal processing system that simultaneously monitors multiple, independent machine components and provides alarm if a problem arises. Each possible failure mode is easily identified by its unique frequency and associated amplitude which can be reliably distinguished from other machine vibrations and background noise.
Chipped forming die found during high volume production.
Example of spectrum comparing a good rolling die to a chipped rolling die.