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For people working in the Condition Monitoring field, the sheer number of online systems being advertised in trade magazines and their advertised capabilities create both excitement and confusion.

Why has there been such a surge in online systems over the past few years?

1. Manufacturing is focused on what’s being called “Digital Factory”.  Critical assets can be controlled and can communicate information via digital links. This allows the health of critical machines to be determined in real time. This vision resonates with many corporations which then helps to push the implementation of these systems to the front of the line.
2. The cost involved in implementing online systems is much lower now than it was 10 years ago because of advancements in technology.  The use of wireless sensors eliminates the cost of running conduit and sensor cables. In addition, since most online systems are web-based, the costs of a network server, software, and database administration are practically eliminated. The vibration data, via Wi-Fi, can be transmitted to the cloud, with the user only paying a subscription fee.

Online Systems Benefits:

1. Data can be collected at any time of the day or as many times, a day as needed without any additional cost. The ability to modify and shorten data collection intervals is a huge advantage, especially when the asset cannot be scheduled for immediate repair due to production schedules. The online system also has an advantage because new data can be collected without the requirement of on-site labor.
2. Data can be reviewed from anywhere.
3. Alarms can identify a machine that is in trouble.
4. The system is set-and-go and the alarm is set according to ISO standards.

One feature of online systems is the ability to warn users when a machine trips an alarm. The most popular type of alarm utilized is the overall vibration level.  When the overall amplitude threshold is reached the alarm is triggered, and in most systems emails and text messages can be sent out to a pre-determined group of people needing to be notified. However, overall vibration alarms simply announce that the condition of the monitored machine has changed.

Overall Alarms do “NOT”  provide the reason or cause for the change in condition of the machine.

To answer the question of “WHY” the machine triggered the overall alarm someone who has training in vibration analysis will need to look at the data to determine the root cause.

Proper setup of alarms can be a tricky and often long process.  Alarms must be established which allow for the normal operation of the machine during operation. However, they must be close enough to the operating vibration level to alert users to changes in the condition of a machine. Extreme caution must be exercised so that alarms are not defined which ultimately results in a large number of nuisance alarms being generated.  This is probably the fastest way to kill a condition monitoring program at a facility. Most facilities do not have the workforce required or the budget needed to address the problems identified on such short notice. This results in operations personnel and maintenance staff simply ignoring the alarms and in some cases even disabling them.

Why Monitor Online? 8 More Reasons to Consider an Online Monitoring System