ADVANCES IN MACHINERY HEALTH MONITORING

The introduction of a vibration-based Predictive Maintenance Program (PMP) for rotating machinery gives both production and maintenance personnel lead time to avoid unscheduled plant outage. To be fully effective, systematic data collection, rapid evaluation, and simple reporting systems are required. This paper briefly discusses the fundamentals of PMP. It also outlines the ways in which the computer has been used to overcome the practical implementation difficulties encountered by many companies during the formative years of the techniques. The place of PMP within the context of an overall maintenance strategy is discussed,particularly in relation to computerised maintenance management systems. Finally the paper brings the reader fully up to date through discussion of "Expert Systems" which have recently become available for automatic production of diagnostic reports on suspect machinery.