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Abstract

In a system for predictive maintenance of machinery based on vibration data history, a portable battery operated vibration data collector and processor unit (10) is equipped with an electro-optical wand (18) for reading a bar code affixed to each data collection station (22) on the machinery that is to be tested. The vibration of the machinery is sensed by electro-mechanical transducers (16) temporarily attached by an operator to permanent indexing mounts (24) at each test station. The bar code (26) identifies the station and automatically initiates a predetermined sequence of vibration data collection, processing and data storage operations. Within the portable unit there are four modules (or boards) interconnected by a serial data bus and unique input/output interface: a central control module (board C) is the brain of the system and initiates data collection in response to the bar code reader and determines the operating sequence of the other modules; an analog-to-digital conversion module (board A) conditions analog signals received from the transducers and converts same to digital time domain data; a fast Fourier transform (FFT) module (board F) receives the digital time domain vibration data and converts it into frequency domain vibration data; and a mass memory module (board D) receives and stores the frequency domain data. When data has been collected from a number of stations, the stored frequency domain data is transfered (uploaded) from the portable unit via a charger/interface (12) into a host computer (14) where the data is further processed to support predictive maintenance scheduling.

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First Claim