Diagnostics of worm gears with vibration analysis

Application of vibration analysis in diagnostics of faults within worm gearboxes is fraught with difficulty. However, these types of gears are widely used in many industries and substantial cost may arise from their maintenance due to undetected failures. The health condition of three different worm gearboxes was evaluated using a number of vibration signal analysis techniques including spectral Kurtosis and enveloping in order to identify the existence of faults. It is concluded that diagnosis of faults is feasible as long as the appropriate analysis technique is employed Nomenclature BW Band Width d Difference signal DE Drive End Fc Central frequency K Kurtosis Kmax Maximum Kurtosis N Number of the points in the signal NDE Non-Drive End r.m.s Root mean square SK Spectral Kurtosis