Working in a brick plant, I have to cover 5 hydraulic pumps that are piped through a spider's web of hoses, all covered with a mixture of hydraulic oil and brick dust (really nasty and hard to clean off)and all loading and unloading in a pattern that is too fast and short in duration for me to keep up with.

Amplitudes are naturally very much higher when the pump is loaded, making trending the data of little worth in the short term.

Has anyone tired using an acceleration trigger for route data collection in a case like this?
Keep in mind that this place is really unpleasant and quite possibly dangerous. I don't want to linger in the vicinity any longer than I have to.

Thanks,

Have caught a few hidden coupling problems (jaw type) but not much as for pump internals. Are they compensating plate or gear type? Mostly, I monitor oil condition with the pumps and look for spectrum content on the drive motors.

Danny,

I used to do over 150 Hydraulic pumps in a Rubber products manufacturing facility (you probably have a dozen or more of their products in your home). Many of the pumps were underneath molding machines, and cycled very quickly. I initially took velocity, spike, g's, TWF in the traditional manner, but after three months, went with Spike energy and TWF alone. Like you, I wasn't interested in sitting on top of those hoses and pumps for a very long period of time.

I was able to detect bearing and vane problems.
The classic looseness signature was prevalent on problem machines. Sometimes ten or twelve harmonics, if the pump was really loaded when it captured the signature. I usually waited until I knew it was about to cycle, and then started the measurement.

Worked well.

Dave

Dave,

That's what I do on injection molding equipment like you are describing. I can catch them under load because of the very repeatable loading process. I look for increases in the PeakVue spectra and twf's.

The difference is that there is evidently a more complex and less predictable pattern involved in stacking bricks than in injection molding. Plus you can add the cramped quarters with hot oil at 1500 psi and sand and clay, and my old tired back, and it can add up to a real whine from me.

Sid,

Probably by best work on hydraulic pumps has been with my strobe

Danny

Unfortunately, my strobe has been rendered virtually useless with the imposed coupling guard specifications. With my hydraulic "C" frame types that utilize the jaw type coupling, I look for a connection (or complete series) between 1x, 3x, and normal pump gearmesh by elevated harmonics. Not to say by any means that particular signature is definitive of a coupling problem, but it certainly is the easiest place to start and has been the problem on a number of occasions. Likewise, for the pumps, I do look for an increase in twf's and sideband increase around gmf. The advantage I have is that the units are either constant speed or I can ask for a particular position of the equipment to be maintained long enough for collection.