Gear and Bearing Faults at Air Condenser Fan Motor

🎯 Case Study: When the Right Analysis Prevents Costly Mistakes
A few days ago, at one of the thermal power plants, the electric motor of the air condenser fan in the condensate return line was placed under condition monitoring.

🔧 At the request of the maintenance department, the hashtag#Pytomation team was on-site to perform data acquisition and evaluate the machine’s health.

📊 Analysis results revealed:
👉 A high rms_vel value
👉 A distinct peak above the GMF of one of the gearbox gears
👉 Repeated peaks around 12.5 Hz, corresponding to the rotational speed of a specific gear in the gearbox

🤔 In such cases, many technicians and even experienced specialists immediately lean toward replacing the faulty component. But experience has shown us that it pays to look deeper.

✅ In this case study, our focus was on:
1. Identifying all existing faults in the equipment
2. Detecting components that were just beginning to fail
3. Most importantly, uncovering the root cause of the failure

⚡ Because if we only replace the damaged parts, the failure is very likely to return. But when the root cause is identified, not only does the machine’s service life increase, but significant cost savings are also achieved.

🚨 Repeatedly, whenever an increase in the bearing RMS of the motor drive end was observed, the bearing was replaced — imposing significant costs on the power plant, since many of these units are installed along the condensate line.
However, through the innovative algorithms developed by Pytomation (hashtag#HR_ENV, ...), the root cause of the failure was identified, leading to substantial economic savings, as the defective components in other parts of the equipment were replaced instead.

💬 How about you?
📌 Have you ever faced a situation where vibration symptoms led you toward replacing a part, but deeper analysis told a different story?
🤝 I’d love to hear your similar experiences.

Sadjad Mahdinezhad

gear wear bearing vibration fan motor