Condition monitoring and diagnostics in automatic machines: Comparison of vibration analysis techniques

This paper assesses and compares the effectiveness and reliability of different vibration analysis techniques for fault detection and diagnostics in cam mechanisms used in high performance automatic packaging machines. Firstly, the results of the application of widely used techniques are given and their limitations are delineated. Secondly, the application of the wavelet transform is proposed, since the vibrations of this kind of machine are highly non-stationary. Finally, an inverse-filtering technique is used to recover the actual output link motion from the casing vibration, in order to enable condition monitoring and diagnostics to be carried out through the analysis of the mechanism motion. © 1997 Academic Press Limited.