Condition monitoring of machine tool subsystems

A policy decision was made that there should be a recognition between measuring the condition (health) of the machine or subsystem and the diagnosis of the seat of the fault. The argument was that the user of the machine was not concerned if there was present a non catastrophic fault as long as the machine performed acceptably. This lead to the search for health indices (HI) or health parameters (HP) which could indicate the condition of the subsystem. A fault diagnostic programme would then be brought into play when the HI fell below a preset value based upon past experience. Following earlier research work the approach to the research was via pattern recognition techniques rather than a mathematical modelling approach