Introduction into Machine Diagnostic Technologies

Condition based maintenance is an on going study of machine conditions. For example if a pump is misaligned, correction of that problem would be based on the condition.

Reliability based maintenance is a higher effort to improve machine conditions before failure. Decisions for improvement are derived from a knowledge base. If a specific bearing design is known to have a higher failure rate in a certain application, replacement with a more suitable bearing will improve the reliability. If a know vibration problem, such as improper belt tension, leads to later modes of failure, correction is performed to increase reliability.

The dual objective of most predictive maintenance programs is to provide an answer to the question, "What is wrong and how long will it last?". The ability to "predict" time to failure is where the term originated. This prediction must be based on known failure cases in the past, as well as a history of the specific machine in question. It has since developed into a general term that covers alot of territory.

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Last updated: November 24, 2002