Message Board Thread - "Comparing Vibration, Thermo and Oil in gear boxes"

Title	By	Posted On
Comparing Vibration, Thermo and Oil in gear boxes	Jungian Archtype	5/21/2008
A question has come up which I am researching- I know that vibration analysis, oil sampling and thermography are complementary in condition monitoring. Question is, which will show the imminent failure (or the increase in slope of a downward trend) of a gear box first? Vibration monitoring can be constant, as opposed to oil sampling or thermography, which gives it an advantage. However, the alarm/alert setpoints of vibration monitoring have been known to be set high enough that once the alert is flagged, it is too late for repair and all that is left is replacement. I am trying to find out which method will give early enough warning that repair becomes economical, instead of replacement being required. Thanks, gents (and ladies)
Re:Comparing Vibration, Thermo and Oil in gear boxes	nickinfrared	5/24/2008
By my experience, 6 years in predictive maintenance, I suggest you to use for gear box condition monitoring the next techniques, in this order: 1. Vibration ; 2. Ultrasound; 3. Oil Analysis 4. Thermography.