Fault detection in a multistage gearbox by demodulation of motor current waveform

Demodulation of vibration signal to detect faults in machinery has been a prominent prevalent technique that is discussed by a number of authors. This paper deals with the demodulation of the current signal of an induction motor driving a multistage gearbox for its fault detection. This multistage gearbox has three gear ratios, and thus, three rotating shafts and their corresponding gear mesh frequencies (GMFs). The gearbox is loaded electrically by a generator feeding an electrical resistance bank. Amplitude demodulation and frequency demodulation are applied to the current drawn by the induction motor for detecting the rotating shaft frequencies and GMFs, respectively. Discrete wavelet transform is applied to the demodulated current signal for denoising and removing the intervening neighboring features. Spectrum of a particular level, which comprises the GMFs, is used for gear fault detection. Index Terms--Current, demodulation, fault diagnosis, gears, wavelet transforms.