Maintenance Initiation Prediction Incorporating Vibrations and System Availability

As per ISO-10816, electric motors up to 15 kW are classified as Class I machines, and the major reason for their failure is that the vibrations in them are above the alert limit. This study presents a new model for predicting the condition-based maintenance (CBM) initiation points through vibration measurement in a system of Class I machines. The proposed model follows the accelerated life testing (ALT) procedure. ALT includes the formation of an artificial wear environment in bearings to analyze the resultant system vibrations on system availability. The artificial wear environment created is close to the real industrial situation. The results show that the prediction of the CBM initiation points is based on the established relation between the system availability and vibrations. Furthermore, a relation between the available time for maintenance initiation and different vibration velocities is demonstrated.