To the savvy maintenance professional, industrial machinery almost “talks” to reveal its condition. But the real key to success is in understanding what the machine is saying. To detect potential machine problems, the professional “listens” in many ways:

• With thermometers and thermal imagers, to detect overheating, poor electrical connections or failing bearings;
• With digital multimeters and power analyzers, to diagnose electrical problems; and
• Using techniques like lubricant analysis, to gauge machine condition over time.

Today, the maintenance professional has a new way not just to listen but to find mechanical problems and fixes: the Fluke 810 vibration tester is engineered to detect and evaluate machine vibration and recommend any needed repairs.

In one case study, a major oil company had to keep 40 electric motors on the job, pumping crude oil, propane and other petroleum products down the pipeline. That task is now easier for one 35-year industry veteran, the area logistics manager for the company. For the past year, he’s been using the vibration tester to diagnose issues in pumps, blowers, and motors up to 3,500 horsepower that pump 8,000 barrels an hour.

“This is something I’ve been waiting on for quite some time,” he said. “The ones we’ve used in the past give you the vibration signature, but you had to interpret the signature. The problem with that is you need to get that in the hands of a technician who knows how to read your signature. The neat thing about it is the Fluke will give you its idea of what it thinks is wrong. But it also gives you that signature you can give to the engineers.”

 “We went down to our transport station — we’ve got eight mainline units there — and were able to find some bearing problems on one of our units,” the logistics manager said. “Once we got the pump into the shop we found out the shaft was out of round, which took the bearing out.

“We went to our number eight pump, and it said ‘motor-pump misalignment.’ The coupling has a shim pack — it’s kind of a flex coupling. That was on a 400 horsepower. We thought we might have a misalignment on the motor but it turned out we had a broken shim pack. We fixed it and it’s still running today, with no problem. It really surprised me how it picked that one up. I don’t know how it did that.”

Ease of use is another advantage. “You can give this thing to just about anybody, and they can learn how to use it in a matter of a few minutes. You can log all your equipment, you can pair it up with Fluke’s infrared camera and it will give you a full picture.”

Today, the Fluke 810 delivers results fundamental to the company maintenance program. “With the big motors, we do the vibration analysis, we look everything over on an annual basis with the Fluke imager so we can see if there’s any heat rise, and we use it on all the switch gear. I call it shoot-fix-move on.

“A lot of companies like to bring people in who actually do the vibration analysis and thermal imaging for ’em,” he said. “The problem is they’ll send you a report but it’s three months down the road, and here you’ve been running this piece of equipment that’s had an issue for over three months.” But with the new tester, “once you’ve got your technicians trained you just shoot, fix and move on.”

With a typical vibration program, he added, “I was spending probably $16,000 just to do the first pass. I can put this $8,000 piece of equipment in their hands and get the same performance.”

In the world of mechanical maintenance, vibration remains one of the earliest indicators of a machine’s health. Mechanical equipment is typically evaluated by comparing its condition over time to an established baseline condition. Vibration analyzers are designed specifically for maintenance professionals who need to troubleshoot mechanical problems and quickly understand the root cause of equipment condition.

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Colin Plastow is industrial product manager for Fluke Electronics Canada. He may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information, visit www.flukecanada.ca.