An intelligent fault recognizer for rotating machinery via remote characteristic vibration signal detection

Monitoring industrial machine health in real-time is not only highly demanded but also significantly complicated and difficult. Possible reasons for this include: (a) Access to the machines on site is sometimes impracticable; and (b) The environment in which they operate is usually not human-friendly due to pollution, noise, hazardous wastes, etc. Despite the theoretically sound findings on developing intelligent solutions for machine condition based monitoring, there are few commercial tools in the market that can readily be used. This paper reports on the development of an intelligent fault recognition and monitoring system (Melvin I), which detects and diagnoses rotating machine conditions according to changes in fault frequency indicators. The signals and data are remotely collected from designated sections of machines via data acquisition cards. They are processed by a signal processor in order to extract characteristic vibration signals of ten key performance indicators (KPIs). A 3-layer neural network is designed to recognize and classify faults based on the set of KPIs. The system implemented in our laboratory and applied in the field can also incorporate new experiences into the knowledge base without overwriting previous training. Preliminary results have demonstrated that Melvin I is a smart tool for both system vibration analysts and industrial machine operators.