Frequently Asked Questions

The lifespan improvement for pumps, motors, fans, and compressors when utilizing vibration monitoring depends on factors such as operating conditions, maintenance practices, and the specific type of equipment. However, studies and industry experience suggest that implementing vibration monitoring can significantly extend the lifespan of machinery:

General Insights:

1. Pumps

   • With vibration monitoring: Often lasts 30–50% longer due to early detection of cavitation, misalignment, and bearing wear.
   • Without monitoring: Unexpected failures are common, reducing lifespan.

2. Motors

   • With vibration monitoring: Lifespan can increase by 30–40% by identifying imbalances, misalignment, and electrical issues before they cause damage.
   • Without monitoring: Failures from undetected issues like misalignment lead to premature wear.

3. Fans

   • With vibration monitoring: Typically lasts 25–50% longer as misalignment, looseness, or unbalanced blades are corrected early.
   • Without monitoring: Overlooked issues can cause structural damage, reducing lifespan.

4. Compressors

   • With vibration monitoring: Lifespan can improve by 30–60% through early identification of mechanical faults such as looseness, worn bearings, or valve issues.
   • Without monitoring: Downtime and catastrophic failures significantly shorten lifespan.

Why Vibration Monitoring Helps:

• Early Detection: Catching problems like imbalance, misalignment, bearing wear, or looseness early prevents minor issues from escalating into major failures.
• Improved Maintenance: Predictive maintenance allows repairs at optimal times, avoiding emergency stops and costly downtime.
• Reduced Stress: Eliminating abnormal vibrations reduces wear and tear, prolonging equipment life.

By adopting vibration monitoring, organizations can shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, ensuring machinery lasts significantly longer and operates more reliably.

LoRaWAN stands for Low Power, Long Range, Wide Area Network. It is a type of network designed for devices that require very low power to operate over long distances, making it suitable for applications where a wide area needs to be covered with minimal energy consumption.

LoRaWAN is advantageous because it:

• Uses very low power, which extends the battery life of devices.
• Has a long range, covering large areas without needing many access points.
• Is widely adopted for sensor networks, especially in remote locations.

Sensors, such as the AirVibe, act as the "end nodes" or devices within the network. They send signals, such as vibration data, to a connector or gateway, which then transmits the data to a cloud-based network server for monitoring and analysis.

AirVibe is a wireless vibration sensor that runs on a LoRaWAN network. It periodically sends time waveform data (vibration signals) from the sensor to a connector module. The data is then transmitted to a cloud-based server, where it can be accessed via an application server (like a DCS system).

Each connector can support up to 150 sensors, making it highly scalable for large monitoring systems.

36 feet / 10.9 meters

RMS/Overall vibration, temperature, humidity, and battery life data is read 1x/minute and a triaxial time waveform/spectrum snapshot 1x/month, depending on a lot of other factors like how many sensors there are in an area, the environmental temp and range etc. We expect it to last 8 years based on battery usage calculations, but at least 4 years with the worst factors. 

Time waveform/spectrum data requested 3-4 times a month would yield a 3-4 year battery life keeping other default settings standard. 
 

Yes, the following settings for AirVibe are all configurable and all can have an effect on battery life if changed from the default. 

• Acceleration Amplitude Range
• Enable/Disable Waveform/Spectrum Data Push
• Enable/Disable Overall Data Push
• Overall Data Push Period Interval
• Waveform/Spectrum Data Push Period Interval
• Enable Waveform/Spectrum Data Axis 1
• Enable Waveform/Spectrum Data Axis 2
• Enable Waveform/Spectrum Data Axis 3
• Waveform/Spectrum Data # of Samples
• Waveform Data Period 

We have FCC, EMC, and are awaiting the final confirmation of Cl 1 div 2 certification — this has already been reviewed and we are just awaiting the official certification document.  

Yes, Machine Saver provides a custom lithium D cell battery for replacement within the TPM when the time comes years down the road.

Yes the integration information can be found on our Github. However at this time only the MachineGate can transmit the waveform data. Only overall data may be integrated through other gateways at this time. We plan on releasing a kernel that allows others to use our proprietary approach to passing this data, please reach out to us if this is something you require for your project.

It's the first Proximitor capable of outputting continuous overall displacement and time waveform/FFT/Orbit synchronized data without a rack-mounted monitor. For a 16-point system, it provides significant cost savings compared to traditional solutions ($22k versus $100k for Bently hardware or $60k for generic brands).

While many sources suggest speeds below 200 RPM don't have much centrifugal energy, Machine Saver can trigger at much lower speeds. The default recommended trigger speed is 30 RPM, though customers can adjust this based on their application.