2 posts tagged with "vibration-monitoring"

Every rotating machine tells you it's failing before it fails. The language it speaks is vibration. A bearing developing a defect produces a specific frequency signature weeks before it seizes. An unbalanced shaft creates characteristic patterns that worsen gradually. A misaligned coupling generates forces that accelerate wear on seals, bearings, and couplings simultaneously.

The question isn't whether vibration monitoring works — it's been proven for 40+ years. The question is how to implement it in a way that's practical for your plant, integrates with your existing systems, and actually drives maintenance decisions. This guide covers the fundamentals, sensor selection, analysis techniques, and how modern IIoT platforms make vibration monitoring accessible beyond the small circle of certified vibration analysts.

Every rotating machine in your factory is telling you about its health right now. The question is whether you're listening.

Vibration monitoring is the foundation of condition-based maintenance for rotating equipment — motors, pumps, compressors, fans, gearboxes, spindles, and turbines. According to the Vibration Institute, over 90% of mechanical failures in rotating equipment produce detectable vibration changes before catastrophic failure occurs. The warning signs are there — often weeks or months before the breakdown.

Yet a 2025 Plant Engineering survey found that 67% of manufacturing facilities still rely primarily on time-based or run-to-failure maintenance strategies for rotating equipment. The result: an average of 800 hours of unplanned downtime per year per facility, costing the global manufacturing industry an estimated $50 billion annually.

This guide covers how vibration monitoring systems work, what techniques and technologies are available, how to choose the right approach for your operation, and how modern IIoT platforms like MachineCDN integrate vibration data into a broader predictive maintenance strategy.