An investigation into fault diagnosis in a rotor-bearing system with dampers used in centrifugal milk separators

Abstract

This paper deals with the problems encountered in the fault diagnosis in damped rotorbearing systems used in centrifugal milk separators. It is shown that direct bearing vibration measurements are more reliable than indirect (through rotor housing) vibration measurements. However, in most cases it is not possible to measure bearing vibrations directly. The factors causing large diagnostic measurement errors, such as the influence of the vibration damping system, step-up gear and electric motor noise are discussed in the paper. It is established that vibration measurements of the damping system are noninformative and cannot be used to diagnose faults in bearings. It is proposed to use the vibration spectra correlation to predict bearing failures in rotor-bearing systems of this type.