What is Vibration?

Torsional Vibration

You can often see, feel and hear vibration, such as when you operate a chainsaw or weed trimmer, or work around piping and structures that are vibrating from connected machinery.

In industrial applications, it is usually impossible to see, feel or hear torsional vibration.  Not only is it happening in drive trains that are rotating at high speeds and therefore unsafe to contact, the shafting is hidden inside the frames of the machinery in which they operate.  Even if you could touch the rotating parts, torsional vibration is of such small magnitude (millidegrees) that specialized equipment is required to detect it.

 

Torsional Vibration Failures

These seemingly small torsional vibration amplitudes can be very damaging to drive trains and connected equipment.  They do not usually manifest themselves until there is a failure of some kind and by then it is too late. Examples of torsional vibration failures can be found on the Torsional Failures page.

Torsional failures are very expensive.  Unlike a cracked pipe or structural beam failure that can usually be repaired within a day or two with new material and a welder, torsional failures often require equipment replacement.  The equipment can be expensive, but the major cost of a torsional failure is typically lost revenue while the equipment is inoperable for an extended period of time.

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