Using the Bearing Defender as a PM Tool

Acoem’s Bearing Defender sensor is a true wireless 3-channel accelerometer.  It can be used with a tablet or smartphone to detect common vibration problems quickly and easily on a machine-with no training or certification required.

It can be used standalone (with a smartphone or other device for the display), or in conjunction with Acoem’s more sophisticated vibration analysis tools – the SMC, RT-300, or Falcon.

It only takes a matter of seconds to determine the most common vibration faults in machinery, such as unbalance, misalignment, or bearing faults.  It can also be used as a lubrication tool, to determine proper greasing of bearings.

So, let’s discuss how it can be deployed as a preventive maintenance tool.

Let’s say you are doing a PM of a pump room, containing 20 pumps-all of which are running.  Collecting standard vibration data on 20 pumps, using a single axis sensor might take a couple of hours, depending on the type of analyzer you are using, and the distance between pumps.

Checking vibration measurements with a Bearing Defender should only take about one minute per pump.  If none of these pumps are in alarm, the PM is completed-in 20 or so minutes.

But maybe one pump is in alarm. You can run the diagnosis (which takes less than a minute) and get a good idea of the problem.  Here, the drive end of the motor has exceeded the ISO specification for vibration.  And the diagnosis indicates a misalignment or unbalance problem.  The next logical step would be to schedule an alignment check of this pump or perform a more detailed vibration analysis.

In this example, the pump was found to be misaligned, corrected, and rechecked – all in about 45 minutes.

Another example – this motor has a bearing with a high Bearing Defect number, and you suspect a lack of lubrication.

You can use the Bearing defender as a lubrication tool as well.  Monitoring live data, you can grease the motor bearing.  Once the Bearing Defect Number drops (typically below a rating of 6 – displayed on your smartphone), the lubricant has contacted the bearing, and reduced the Bearing Defect Number.

These are just a couple of examples of how to deploy the Bearing Defender as a PM tool, which can be used by mechanics to perform a more thorough PM and make corrections-freeing up the vibration analyst to focus on more critical machines.