Low Speed Bearing Condition Monitoring – A Case Study

The heath condition of worm-wheel gearbox is critical for the reliable and continuous operation of passenger escalators. The vibration sensor has been widely installed in the gearbox and the vibration level is usually utilized as a health indicator. However, vibration level is not robust in slow speed bearing condition monitoring. In this paper, the health condition of two slow speed bearings was evaluated using vibration data collected from sensors installed in the shaft. It has been shown that the vibration level fails to indicator the bearing health condition. The assessment accuracy can be improved by combining several simple methods.