Upgrade Your Shaft Alignment Tool Today with Acoem's AT-Series Trade-In Program! Click Here to Learn More About This Limited Time Offer

An Overview of Vibration Transducers

What are vibration transducers? Vibration transducers used for machinery evaluations are devices that measure displacement of a shaft or motion of a structure and convert this motion into electrical signals. There are three basic types of vibration transducers: Accelerometers  Velocity transducers  Non-contact Displacement transducers Features of vibration transducers Of these three types of transducers, both…

Read More

Soft Foot! Or Are You Just Pulling My Leg?

It’s no joke that many machines operate with high levels of vibration due to soft foot.  These same machines often have a decreased life span due to this condition. Soft foot is a condition that should be eliminated during the precision shaft alignment process, if you’re performing proper alignments at all.  This condition can manifest…

Read More

I Just Changed My Motor Bearings and They’re Bad Again!

When performing vibration analysis, it is observed that machines with VFD drives have a more frequent occurrence for changing motor bearings.  If you’ve been diligent in the installation and maintenance of these machines, ensuring the alignment and balance are within specification and the bearings are properly lubricated, but still have frequent bearing failures, it may…

Read More

Shock Factor and SFI

For years, vibration analysts have depended upon the ISO Vibration Severity Chart for the determination of machinery health.  Typically, this chart provides a level of certainty that would allow the analyst to look at the vibration levels, and if acceptable, move onto the next machine for analysis.   Some defects are determined in the waveform…

Read More

Using Bearing Defect Factor for Gear Defect Detection

Bearing defect factor is a culmination of two technologies used for shock detection.  DEF is designed as an indicator for bearing defect detection, but can also be valuable in the detection of gear defects. Why is DEF significant? In the following data set are displayed Overall Vibration Velocity, Overall Acceleration, and Defect Factor.  The Overall…

Read More

One Resolution to Motor Resonance

A customer was experiencing high levels of vibration on one of the HVAC motors. The cause for these high vibration levels was determined to be resonance. Resonance of this motor was seen in the vibration spectral data and was confirmed onsite with a bump test. This motor was not VFD driven and therefore the machine…

Read More