Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance
Condition monitoring systematically captures measurands such as vibration, temperature or oil quality to continuously assess the technical condition of machines and plan maintenance proactively rather than reactively.
From calendar to indicator
While time- or usage-based maintenance sets service intervals independently of actual condition, condition monitoring continuously measures parameters such as vibration, bearing and winding temperature, oil analytics or electrical characteristics and compares them against reference and alarm values. Maintenance actions are then triggered when an actual wear or fault trend is detected, rather than following a rigid calendar schedule.
Building a monitoring programme
An effective programme starts with a criticality analysis that determines which units warrant continuous or periodic monitoring given their importance to operations and safety. For each measurand, the acquisition method, measurement interval and warning and shutdown thresholds are defined; data evaluation ranges from simple trend charts to automated diagnostic algorithms that narrow down fault causes. Thermographic scanning is one of several individual techniques within a comprehensive condition monitoring programme.
Insurance relevance
A documented condition monitoring programme with traceable trigger criteria for maintenance actions is a strong indicator for machinery and business interruption insurers of a systematically managed risk, particularly for critical single units without redundancy. Where such monitoring is missing on key machines, this is regularly noted as a weakness during risk assessment.
Standards and codes
- ISO 17359:2018 – Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics of Machines, General Guidelines