Vibration Analyzer for Industrial Machinery: What to Look for When Choosing a Model

There are many brands and models of vibration analyzers to choose from. Which one is right for you? With the information on this page we hope to make your selection effort a bit easier.



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A vibration analyzer for use in the field should be rugged, ergonomic (easily held with intuitive controls), and have some degree of modularity (i.e. easily-upgradable software, firmware and hardware components).

Some basic requirements of any good vibration analyzer:

  • robust housing (ingress protection rating of IP65 or better)
  • carrying pouch (with breakaway shoulder strap for safety)
  • lightweight: less than 2 lbs
  • dustproof
  • water resistant
  • expandable (e.g. more memory such as with a Flash Card)
  • large VGA screen
  • 1 or 2-channel
  • icon-based GUI
  • FFT

Communications interfaces:

  • trigger input
  • Ethernet
  • USB
  • serial connection (RS232)

Abilities:

  • cepstrum
  • cross-channel phase
  • orbits
  • order spectrum
  • phase
  • run-up and coast-down measurements

Other Abilities:

  • lubrication measurement (which in turn indicates lubrication and or bearing condition)

Analytical tools:

  • cursor types
  • machine-specific frequency markers
  • signal post processing

Alarms based on:

  • ISO10816
  • user-defined

Expandability:

  • Balancing upgrade
  • 2-channel input

A vibration analyzer should come with powerful maintenance software for further evaluation, report generation and archiving

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