From Motor Vibration to Vibration Charts and Back

This blog provides a light reading for people curious about motor vibration, vibration charts, and the benefits of vibration monitoring.

Today, waves of a circular nature surround you. The entire basis of our universe, physicists believe, is waves. Light is a wave. Sound is a wave. Gravity is a wave. The ocean waves at us. We wave at each other. All this waving can bring harmony and by extension, success.

Vibrations are powerful forces, able to travel limitlessly in some cases.

What throws everything out of whack in life is when these waves are disrupted in an unpleasant way. What do we mean by this? The answer: every individual has to recognize that bad waves are telling us that attention is needed. If we don’t resolve the situation, a negative shift occurs.

The circular motion, oscillation, of a machine demonstrates the principle well, at least in a physical way. The machine has a normal vibration pattern. Imagine it humming, doing its work. Everything is lubed up, spins in a consistent fashion, creating a familiar buzz that means profit.

Then one day, you walk into work, punch in, turn on the lights. It’s an ungodly awful clunking, on a rotation. Swing, swing, swing, clunk. Swing, swing, swing, clunk. That’s what’s known as a motor vibration problem.

The circular motion or oscillation of motors and parts in mechanical equipment is known as vibration. Vibration in industrial machinery can be a sign or reason for a failure, or it can be a natural part of the process.

Vibration can signify a fault and, if ignored, might result in damage or hasten the decay of the profit-producing equipment. At any particular time, vibration can be induced by one or more variables.

Instability — When an unbalanced load rotates around the engine's axis, causing a force of gravity, it causes vibration in the rotating part.

Shaft Runout— If machine shafts are out of position, vibration can occur.

Wear — Vibration can be caused by worn items including ball or roller bearings, drive belts, or gears.

Laxity — If the vibrating device has poor hinges or is loosely attached to its bolts, a vibration that would normally be ignored might become visible and damaging.

Impacts of Vibration

Vibration can accelerate machine wear, waste too much energy, and force equipment out of operation, causing breakdowns. Vibration also has other consequences, such as safety concerns and bad working conditions.

Steady vibration, on the contrary, can play a vital part in preventative maintenance programs when correctly measured and analyzed. It can be used as an indicator of device performance, allowing plant technicians to intervene before loss or hazard occurs.

Vibration Severity Charts

A vibration chart is used to evaluate whether the vibration levels measured are adequate. Filtered measurements taken on the motor shaft or bearing cap are used to calculate the values indicated.

You can apply this principle to just about anything regarding science. Math and science are nothing more than studying the measurements of vibrations in a quantitative manner. Put your vibrations on a chart and examine them. Make changes. Test the results. Repeat.

Consistent vibration monitoring paves the way for profits like only Midas himself has known.