Condition Monitoring of Gear Boxes
Condition Monitoring of Gearboxes or Gearbox Condition Monitoring is a difficult process among condition monitoring of all other equipment. The reason behind it is, all the bearing are mounted on the same casing (body) of the gearbox. so the noise from all the gears and all the bearings is transferred to the same casing. It is a tedious and time-consuming process to differentiate the signals to pinpoint the faulty gear or bearing.
Condition Monitoring of Gear Boxes means monitoring the condition of Gear Mesh (Gear Teeth) and Bearings in the Gear Boxes. Although Ultrasound Measurement and Thermography are the techniques of CM here, we need to add Vibration Analysis (not Vibration Measurement) and Used Oil Analysis for Gear Boxes. Rather later are the major & necessary techniques in CM of Gear Boxes.
In case of Gearbox, only Vibration Analysis is a CM technique, just because Vibration Measurement doesn’t much tell about Gear Mesh. Vibration Analysis gives information about Gear Mesh Frequency (GMF) and we can monitor vibration amplitude at these Gear Mesh Frequencies.
Thermography gives us details about the condition of individual bearing & Oil Analysis is done to find out the amount of wear particles in the oil. See the thermal images herewith, those reveal the condition of bearings as well of the gearbox.
Our CM of Gear Box includes combination of techniques like Vibration Analysis, Thermography & Oil Analysis. We also use Ultrasound Measurement in some cases.
Gear Oil Analysis/ Gear Lubricant Analysis is carried out during CM interval to track & trend the condition of oil. The list of Oil/Lubricant Analysis Tests is suggested, viz. Viscosity Testing, Ferrous Density Testing, Water Contamination in Oil, Oxidation, TAN – Total Acid Number is a titration method designed to indicate the relative acidity in a lubricant, Particle Count testing usually according to ISO 4406 and SAE 4059, Ferrous Particle Count Testing, Wear Debris Analysis, Elemental Spectroscopy, etc. The result is recorded and maintained in Trend and hence, the condition of Gear Oil/ Gear Lubricant is monitored.
