Fluke 805-FC Application Note

They are better

together—Ti400

Infrared Camera

and Fluke 805

Vibration Meter

If a tree falls in the forest . . . it makes a noise,
whether anybody’s there to hear it or not.

Just like that fabled tree, machines in trouble provide
telltale evidence to warn of impending problems—if
you just know how to look and listen. Two of the most
useful indicators are temperature and vibration. Most
mechanical components emit a certain amount of
heat and vibration in the normal course of operation.
But excessive heat, cold or vibration can tip you off to
underlying problems, so you can fix them before they
lead to breakdown and bring production to a halt.

New test tools such as the Fluke Ti400 Infrared
Camera and Fluke 805 Vibration Meter are available to
help measure heat and vibration and the 805 can help
interpret the data. They tell you what the underlying
problem may be and guide you in making repairs.

Application Note

Trouble heats up

An abnormally hot or cold spot
or an unusual thermal pattern
on process equipment often indi­cates an emerging problem. This
makes thermal cameras, which
capture two-dimensional images
of the apparent surface tempera­tures of objects, useful tools for
regular predictive maintenance
of mechanical, electrical and
other equipment. With thermal
imaging you can discover and
diagnose various issues includ­ing high-resistance electrical
connections that impede airflow,
bearing issues on motors and
tank levels, and many other
mechanical problems.

In a major Florida brewery,
scanning with a Fluke infrared
camera revealed that the gear­box of a bottle labeling machine

was running hotter than normal
– nearly boiling hot. A physical
inspection showed the box was
filled with water, not lubricant.
A damaged seal had allowed the
water in. A breakdown could
have shut down the bottling
line.

One way to prioritize infrared
scanning is to begin with the
critical assets whose failure
would threaten people, prop­erty or product. Then determine
what conditions add stress and
monitor those assets more fre­quently. For example, the sludge
and particulates found in many
processes put extra stress on
motors affecting bearings, wind­ings and insulation. This stress
can show up as heat detect­able by a thermal imager. Such
motors should be scanned for
fre q uently.

What to look for

Use your thermal imager to look
for hot and cold spots, as well
as other anomalies. Be espe­cially aware of similar kinds
of equipment operating under
similar conditions, but at dif­ferent apparent temperatures.
Such deviations might signal
a problem. A good approach is

From the Fluke Digital Library @ www.fluke.com/library

to create inspection routes that
include all critical assets using
Fluke Connect™ EquipmentLog™
history.

Using the EquipmentLog™
history feature you can create
a folder for each critical equip­ment asset with a description
of the asset and the location
in the Fluke Cloud™ storage.
Each time you inspect a piece
of equipment you or any other
team member who has been
given access, saves a thermal
image or measurement data to
that equipment folder, allowing
you and your team to track and
monitor the equipment condition
over time and getting instant
access to historical data – all
from one location. Now main­tenance technicians can easily
do a side-by-side comparison
from previous inspections to
help determine whether a hot
spot or cool spot is unusual and
if any planned maintenance is
required. This keeps your equip­ment running longer, saving you
time and money and reduces the
risk of unplanned downtime.

When vibration shows
a problem

Vibration can be normal in
machine operation—or it can be
a sign of trouble. Most indus­trial devices are engineered to
operate smoothly and AVOID
vibration, not produce it. In elec­tric motors, rotary pumps and
compressors, fans, and blowers,
low vibration is the ideal. In
these machines, vibration can
indicate problems or deteriora­tion in the equipment.

But how can the plant
maintenance professional tell
acceptable, normal vibration
from the kind of vibration that
requires immediate attention,
to service or replace troubled
equipment?

Use vibration to screen
machine health

Unchecked machine wear
can quickly damage equip­ment, cause safety problems,
and degrade plant working
conditions. In the worst cases,
machine faults can knock equip­ment out of service and halt
plant production that cuts into
the bottom line.

When machines are screened,
vibration can be used in a
preventive maintenance pro­gram as an indicator of machine
condition, and you can target
remedial action before disaster
strikes. This gives maintenance
staff time to schedule repairs
and acquire needed parts.
Increased maintenance intervals
mean machine life is extended
and maintenance can be sched­uled by need. Peace of mind
builds confidence in mainte­nance schedules, budgeting and
productivity estimates.

The hand-held Fluke 805
Vibration meter with Fluke
Connect ShareLive™ not only
measures machine vibration,
bearing impacting, and bear­ing temperature, but compares
the readings to 37 specific
machine categories—all while
letting you stay in direct con­tact with your team. This gives
the maintenance technician
critical information about the
machine health and warning
of bearing failures in a wide
variety of mechanical equip­ment, including motors, pumps,
fans, blowers, compressors and
more. You can reduce equip­ment downtime and costs with
the EquipmentLog™ history
function of the Fluke Connect™
app. With EquipmentLog™ you
can create unique folders for
individual machines, storing
historical inspection data that
can be accessed later by your
team. This allows side-by-side
comparisons of previous mea­surements so any accelerated
trends of degradation can be
identified to help determine how
quickly a repair is needed or if
it can be delayed to a more con­venient time. Trending vibration

2 Fluke Corporation They are better together–Ti400 Infrared Camera and Fluke 805 Vibration Meter