Identification of Vibration Properties of Heavy Duty Machine Driveline Parts as a Base for Adequate Condition Monitoring : Axle

With increasing complexities in the heavy duty construction equipment, early fault detection of certain components in the machine becomes more and more challenging due to too many fault code generated when a failure occurs. The axle is one of such component. The axle transfers driving torque from the transmission to the wheels and axle failure may result in costly downtime of construction equipment. To reduce service cost and to improve uptime, adequate condition monitoring based on sensor data from the axle is considered. Vibration is measured on the axle. Analysis of the data has been carried out using adequate signal processing methods. The results indicate that the vibration properties of the axle are relevant for early fault detection of the axle. In this way; the health of the axle may be continuously monitored on-board using the vibration information and if the axle health starts to degrade a service and/or repair may be scheduled well in advance of a potential axle failure and in that way the downtime of a machine may be reduced.