Advanced Testing of Heavy Duty Gearboxes in Non-Stationary Operational Conditions

Paper presents the approach of testing of heavy duty gearboxes dedicated to mining machinery. Main focus is on non-stationary operational conditions and advanced monitoring of vibration, process parameters and other signals connected with gearbox operation such as temperatures, pressure and flow in cooling system. Famur’s Group advanced test rig is presented with description of its technical parameters and advanced control and monitoring system. The system features unique capabilities in scope of system dynamics enabling to simulate overloads of impacts often present in real life mining machine load characteristics. The case study shows exemplary test performed on heavy duty gearbox of 250 kW power both with recorded parameters and analysis results. Observed dependencies between vibration and time-varying process parameters were presented and discussed. Currently Famur Group develops and implements several signal analysis algorithms, taking into account recent research in this field. Further development of the test rig will allow to verify suitability of these methods in industrial systems for monitoring machines working in non-stationary operational conditions. This verification is possible thanks to ability of simulation of conditions comparable with real-life machine operation.