Virtual Instrumentation based intelligent vibrobench for bearing testing

This paper presents the development of an intelligent and low-cost vibration monitoring and fault diagnostic system using virtual instrumentation technique. Intelligent system is built with the aid of LabVIEW software (version 7.1) and DAQ (data acquisition) card PCI-6042E for testing the bearings with reference to the standard bearing. Both the bearings are connected to the common shaft of vibrating segment and vibration analysis is carefully carried out using a piezo-electric sensor with advanced charge amplifier. The vibration signals from standard and bearing under test, are signal conditioned and connected to the terminal block (BNC-2120) at two different channels. Analysis is done with LabVIEW based software program for time and frequency domain study. Comparison between standard and test bearing is studied based on the fundamental and multitones of the signal from its random behavior in frequency domain. Result and recommendations are displayed according to the condition of the bearing with an allowable tolerance.