How to start with vibration based predictive maintenance? You can use any tool which provides you with a value and limits of a parameter which best reflects the technical state of the supervised object. Yes. It’s just that easy! The magic is, what parameter should be used?

Most of the simple vibration meters use the most popular standard ISO 20816 (formerly ISO 10816). They acquire vibration signal process it, compute vibration velocity [mm/s] in the frequency range of 10-1000 Hz and apply limits defined in the standard to inform you about the overall machine condition. Which limits? Each time the same. When you start exploring the ISO20816 standard you will learn that it consists of several parts. Each deals with a different type of machinery (pumps, fans, turbines, generators). To make it more challenging, few machine classes are defined in each part and they have their own vibration limits which should be used when evaluating the machine condition. You will not find them in most vibration meters available on the market. You need a vibration analyzer. As a more advanced tool, it allows you to define manually different types of diagnostic parameters. A bit complicated in the beginning and sometimes a bit expensive…

That’s why we’ve developed MADI – a mobile application which processes signals coming from CL@VE. It provides numerous sets of analysis and assessment criteria applicable to various objects.

And what about the frequency range? Diagnostic information for low speed machines (like conveyors or extruders) is contained in signals having frequencies below 10 Hz. Symptoms of improper lubrication of the bearing are found in the frequency range of 2-3 kHz. Early detection of bearing or gearbox damage requires analysis of a vibration signal having a frequency of at least several kHz. Simple meters do not see them. You neither

So, maybe CL@VE with MADI is the right solution to start?