Mechanical Vibration | Introduction To Machine Vibration | 5 Ugly Truth About Causes Of Machine Vibration

Mechanical Vibration

In the automotive engineering and structural engineering industries, mechanical vibrations play a significant part. If abrupt disturbances occur, the structure should be able to deal with them. Otherwise, the building collapses…

In this post, I am also presenting detailed information on all vibration terms such as definitions, mechanical vibration forms, and implementations.

Most of us are familiar with vibration; a vibrating object moves to and fro, back and forth. A vibrating object oscillates.

Mechanical vibration examples

We experience many examples of vibration in our daily lives. A pendulum set in motion vibrates. A plucked guitar string vibrates. Vehicles driven on rough terrain vibrate, and geological activity can cause massive vibrations in the form of earthquakes. There are various ways we can tell that something is vibrating.

We can touch a vibrating object and feel the vibration. We may also see the back-and-forth movement of a vibrating object. Sometimes vibration creates sounds that we can hear or heat that we can sense. To observe how mechanical vibration can create sound and heat, rub your feet back and forth on a carpet.

In industrial plants, there is the kind of vibration we are concerned about: machine vibration.

What is machine vibration?

Machine vibration is simply the back-and-forth movement of machines or machine components. Any component that moves back and forth or oscillates is vibrating.

Machine vibration can take various forms. A machine component may vibrate over large or small distances, quickly or slowly, and with or without perceptible sound or heat. Machine vibration can often be intentionally designed and so have a functional purpose. (Not all kinds of machine vibration are undesirable. For example, vibratory feeders, conveyors, hoppers, sieves, surface finishers, and compactors are often used in industry).

At other times, machine vibration can be unintended and lead to machine damage. Most of the time, machine vibration is unintended and undesirable. This article is about the monitoring of undesirable machine vibration.

Machine Vibration: Undesirable Behavior

Shown below are some examples of undesirable machine vibration.