Vibration Analysis

[nui]

Hello,

Has anyone used handheld vibration analysis tools before? Can you recommend any brands that I should look at?

Cheers,

Nick

[Whisty]

York offered VA for a while but seem to have dropped it now. Couldn't tell you which system they used though.

[Brian_UK]

Has anyone used handheld vibration analysis tools before? ....

I have a feeling that there is a naughty joke in there somewhere but.......


I've had some VA done on a fan set some years back which proved quite useful but haven't seen it done on anything lately.

[abdulazman]

[QUOTE=Brian_UK]I have a feeling that there is a naughty joke in there somewhere but.......

What he meant was an actual handheld vibration analysis tool and not a vibrator, mate.

Talking about those gray matters in cerebelum, "What will they think of next".

2 different terminology, I did use those analysis tools when I was with MYCOM.

Will check it out and come back to you NUI.

[fridg]

I have been told the strobe light is a very useful tool
in analyzing vibration of pipework.

The light is the same sort you would find in night clubs

if you set the frequency correct , you will be able to tell
how much movement there is in your pipe , caused
by vibration.

[spr2003]

Hello,

Has anyone used handheld vibration analysis tools before? Can you recommend any brands that I should look at?

Cheers,

Nick

We have an accelerometer by Bang & Olufsen, but i was told it is very expensive. I never used it personally.

[SteveDixey]

Hello,

Has anyone used handheld vibration analysis tools before? Can you recommend any brands that I should look at?

Cheers,

Nick

SPM make a hand-held unit that is supposed to make things quite "idiot proof". I should try to hire units first to try out. However, these "do everything" units might not be as accurate as an experienced operator tuning a higher spec machine to the plant's individual patterns.

Hand-held units are not ideal as they can have too many variables caused by the operator, and fixed monitoring points are better. Many people still swear by the screwdriver against the ear trick, and if you do it regularly enough, you can pick up changes in the noise generated.

I am wary of "buying in" a test from outside. Quite often these guys come in, shoving probes here there and everywhere, and asking no questions about plant operating conditions, etc, etc.

They are no magic bullet, and need time to learn how to use, build up a trend of information and even then can miss problems in a vibration prone engine room.

It is very important you use the same run conditions each time you monitor and this in itself is difficult on big plants with varying loads.

Sabroe supplied me with some stuff they have. They recommended their screws running at half-load but given our plant screws ran at 100% all the time, I used that instead, making sure the recips were off.

I did pick up discharge end bearing races going "flaky" on a SAB163 earlier than they should have done. Interestingly, the oil analysis did not show anything....

Steve

[TSK]

IRD Mechanalisis do very good machines, trouble is you need do a course to understand the data you get back (make that try to understand) next thing is the readings are never quite the same so you need to do a few to "form a trend" this then takes out the odd error reading. Verrry expensive tech this stuff, would be ideal for a car factory with a million bearings to read to make it all worthwhile, we tried it for a few years on a load of Hitachi Screw compressors, one or two Trane screws as well. As for oil analisis you need to get the stuff from the bottom of the oil filter bowl (if you can) It's just like the York V 8 cyl I once came across, lovley clean oil in the sight glass, filter collapsing in the sump with all the crud from pipe braze without nitro (prev company) only found out when the thing wouldent hold the oil diff and we took the side cover off!

[absrbrtek]

What specificaly are you performing an analysis on? Screws, centrifugals, fans, etc?

To do it right your looking at a $20,000 to a $40,000 US investment. If I am analyzing screws or centrifugals I just rent the tool and send back the data. Costs $250 to rent and $100 for results, doing 3 machines would cost $550 US. They have 1000's of signatures for various compressors to compare your readings too.

Hello,

Has anyone used handheld vibration analysis tools before? Can you recommend any brands that I should look at?

Cheers,

Nick