Ensuring the longevity of equipment by inspecting bearings for early signs of failure is a commendable practice. However, it’s crucial to perform the check correctly—utilize the appropriate tools and methods for accurate results.
What is condition based monitoring?
Often called predictive maintenance or inspection. A large part of improving reliability is to employ condition monitoring methods to detect failures before catastrophic break downs happens. However, condition monitoring only improves reliability if planning, scheduling, and repair is done before the breakdown happens. Find out how maintenance planning and condition based maintenance work together.
If it is neglected there are few corrective jobs in a plant that can be planned and scheduled. There are two important rules when you document a condition monitoring system:
- Find a method that allows on the run monitoring rather than shutdowns
- Use object methods rather than subjective
What are some objective condition monitoring methods?
- Wear particle analysis
- Infrared
- NDT
- Shock pulse meter (SPM)
- Vibration analysis
- Temperature readings
- Leak detection
Checking bearings, how should I do it?
Back to our subject. If you want to detect early failures a regular vibration pen won’t detect it, we suggest using a SPM. In the video above, Owe Forsberg will show you the reading on our demo rig with a vibration pen versus an SPM meter. Thanks to SPM Instruments for providing us with the Bearing checker pen.
There are pros and cons of using a vibration pen to check bearings
There are pros and cons of SPM for checking bearings
Do you have the right PMs for your equipment?
IDCON can help your team build a cost-effective program.
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