In the forums opinion what makes a good vibration analyst? Having a good mechanical background? A good electrical background? Both or neither?
Or maybe just a desire to learn the technology?
I think it would be interesting to see what everybodys ideas are on this.

There are several different personality traits I think are important, but as far as experiance goes, I'd much rather have someone with mechanical aptitude and experiance and teach him vibration than someone with tech and booklearnin and try to teach him mechanical. If I have a Mechanical person that knows Electrical, then I'm double blessed.
As a matter of fact, I guess you can't teach "experiance".

My .02

Dave

Interesting - my take: I think it takes someone that has intense interest and the squiggly lines never become boring. I do this stuff as a way of life moreso than boating, hunting, fishing or guns (from someone that carries 3 pistols and a rifle).

In addition: mechanical w/electrical knowledge and a lot of common sense. Someone that never says, "That'll do" - "it's close enough".

And your wife says, "I'm sure glad you got into vibraton"

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

Take the test, you will be more likely to enjoy the job and do it well if you're an INTJ.

That may be OK if you're in the north but in the south it's H_IC

HA HA HA.........

good one Sam....

Paul- I have seen both mechanically minded individuals and electrically minded individuals take to vibration. I personally am have a mechanical aptitude but have an electrical background and vibration came easy because of working with waveforms in electrical, sometimes that is harder to get mechanical individuals to grasp in the beginning without lots of pictures and animation. Also in all though I have to agree with Sam. Get someone who is teachable and that says I gotta figure this out cuz I am not letting it kick my @$$ and he'll solve all of your problems and catch stuff way before it thinks about failing. Those there to earn the paycheck and go home can be data dogs or just turn wrenches, cuz no 2 squiggles squiggle the same way. And once you learn it all you've just started.

Certainly explains my struggles...

Gary Forsythe

I am like oju. I am an electrical engineer with a strong mechanical aptitude.

The electrical does help to understand wave theory and signal processing. This is a nice thing but I am not sure it is required.

I think that the mechanical aptitude is a must. You need to understand how machines work and how they can fail. In order to analysis a machine it is much easier to do if you know or have some understanding of what is inside.

Mechanical aptitude. Intense curiosity. I am a very "visual" person and I think that helps. I love of mathematics and physics is a real plus. Good oral and written communication skills, or at least the ability and desire to learn them (you have to be able to explain what you find).

Someone who is not afraid to do the "hot and dirty" stuff, because equipment is almost always hot and dirty. You may impress 'management' without doing the hot and dirty stuff, but you will not earn the respect of the rank-and-file operators and mechanics unless you are willing to actually do the hard work of doing analysis. Without that rank-and-file buy-in, your success will be limited, at least in solving everyday problems in the plant.

Hi fellows,I just took vibbase's test and i found out that I'm a INTJ(11,38,88,78) I've been an analyst for 6 years now so it seems I found my place but what about you guys? I wonder how many of us are INTJ or an other type of personnality? It would be nice to have a suvey on the subject and see how the most experienced score on the personnality test.
Best regard, Marcel

INTP (67, 50, 12, 22) Mechanical Engineer for 27 years; vibration analyst for 17 years.

I am extremely analytical, about most everything. But when doing vibration analysis I am probably as much intuitive as anything. I rely a lot on experience. I don't crunch the numbers too much (I pretty much ignore 'limits'). If it doesn't sound/feel right, it's usually not right, regardless of what the numbers say. I am not overly cautious; I will take calculated risks to get as much life from a machine as is reasonable, given all the factors involved. I am a perfectionist, preferring to not do something at all if I'm not going to be able to do it to my standards. I struggle with attention deficeit. I procrastinate. I forget things (but not what a particular machine "sounded" like months ago when I last walked up to it).

Do I sound "typical" or "atypical" for a vibration analyst? I don't know. I think we all probably share a lot of common traits, but there will be wide variations I think. Perhaps certain traits are essential, while others are complimentary, while still others are optional. I don't know. And then you have to account for the variations in what is expected of us.... not all 'analyst' positions are the same.