Fault Detection and Diagnosis of Gearbox Oil Shortage Using Motor Current Signature

Gearboxes are the most significant components of a motor driven system. However, they are often exposed to various abnormal working condition which causes damage to the gear. One of typical forms is oil shortage whichworsen the lubrication state of gears furthermore causing the gears to get worn. Recently, several various attempts have been performed for the detection of oil shortage in gearbox using electric signatures. However, the results are not that promising. This study considered different oil level such as Baseline (BL) 2600 ml, Oil Sample (OS) 2000 ml and OS1500 ml to demonstrate the performance of motor current analysis-based oil shortage detection. It has shown by an experimental evaluation that MSB analysis yields a much better diagnostics of detecting oil shortage in gearboxes at a normal working condition. This is mainly because MSB is good at extracting small sidebands induced by oil shortage or poor lubrication in gearboxes which yields a more precise and reliable results.