Mechanical Fault Diagnosis and Condition Monitoring

Although the most sophisticated fault diagnosis and condition monitoring systems have their origin in the aerospace and nuclear energy industries, their use is by no means restricted to such areas of ’high technology’. Modern machinery in most industrial plants is now so complex and expensive that mechanics find it increas­ ingly difficult to detect failure by, for instance, recognising changes in sound ’signatures’, and few plants can afford the luxury of regular ’stripping down’. Increasingly, therefore, eady-warning devices are being employed in an effort to prevent catastrophic breakdown. This book provides the first co-ordinated compilation of fault diagnosis and con­ dition monitoring devices. It proceeds in three logical steps. The eady chapters deal with those conditions which contribute to deterioration and the consequent likely development of faults. The middle part of the book considers the various tech­ niques of monitoring and discusses the criteria for their selection in different situ­ ations. The final chapters provide a guide to the interpretation of the information signals deriving from monitoring, relating to reliability science and the mathematics of probability, and thus providing decision data on which management can act.