Introduction

The quality of the data gathered for monitoring, trending, or diagnostics, and how it will be used, will obviously effect the success of the predictive maintenance program. In this chapter, the equipment and software necessary to do a proper job in each of the three phases of rotating machinery analysis is discussed. Transducers, however, will not be discussed here, because they were dealt with in detail in Chapter 3. Although specific products may be mentioned occasionally in this chapter, the intention is to make the reader aware of the kinds of things available. No endorsement of a particular product is intended.

The electronics and software industries are different than the heavy machinery industries in two ways, which surprised the author when leaving a job with a heavy-equipment manufacturer some years ago in favor of an electronics instrumentation manufacturer. It would be wise for the machinery people among us to learn these lessons now:

Because of the frequency of introduction of new electronic chips, the price of equipment using older technology begins to rise after a few years. This means that an old, reliable design can no longer compete with a more recently designed instrument in terms of cost, weight, or (sometimes but not always) capability. This forces instrument manufacturers to introduce new equipment every 3 5 years instead of every 10 or 20 years for a pump, gearbox, or turbine. Any specifics about particular pieces of equipment included in this chapter, therefore, are on their way toward being obsolete as...