Predictive maintenance is a technique that aims to optimize the operation of equipment and industrial plant in which they are inserted, by means of regular monitoring of its real operating condition.

One of the main tools of predictive maintenance is the analysis of vibrations. All machines in operation produce vibrations that gradually lead them to a process of deterioration. This deterioration is characterized by a change in the distribution of vibrating energy throughout the elements that make up the machine. Watching the evolution of the level of vibrations it is possible to obtain information about the status of the machine.

The principle of vibration analysis is based on the idea that the machinery structures excited by dynamic efforts (action of forces) show vibrating signals, whose frequency is equal to the frequency of the exciting agents. When vibration pick-ups are placed in defined points of the machine, they capture vibrations received throughout the structure registering vibrations and its analyses, allowing identification of the origin of the loads acting on an operating machine.

Through the measurement and analysis of vibrations of an operating machine it is possible to detect the presence of failures which must be corrected and anticipate the increase in the existing damage.