Electric motor vibration monitoring
Electric motors drive almost every pump, fan, compressor and conveyor in your plant. A failed motor bearing or a loose rotor bar stops the whole line. IRD online transmitters and portable meters pick up these faults weeks before a trip, so you can plan the repair instead of reacting to a breakdown.
Why monitor motors?
- Catch bearing wear and lubrication problems early, before they turn into winding damage.
- Find mechanical faults (unbalance, misalignment, soft foot) and electrical faults (2× line frequency, rotor bars).
- Protect critical motors with alarms and trips over 4-20 mA, relays or Modbus to your DCS/PLC.
- Trend every motor in one place with OLIVER and IRD Cloud.
Motors in the field
Sensor mounts and motor monitoring from IRD commissioning and route checks.
Common motor faults and how IRD helps
Unbalance
High 1× RPM radial vibration. Trend overall velocity with IRD5420 or IRD591; confirm in the field with the IRD202 Elite.
Misalignment
High 1×/2× and axial vibration at the coupling. Monitor drive end and driven end together with the dual-channel IRD8520.
Bearing wear
Rising high-frequency energy. Spike-energy checks with the IRD811D; continuous protection with IRD7200.
Soft foot
Vibration that changes when hold-down bolts are loosened. Check during commissioning with portable meters such as IRD306.
Electrical / 2× line frequency
A 100 Hz (50 Hz supply) peak from air-gap or stator problems. Online trending with OLIVER and IRD Cloud helps tell it apart from mechanical faults.
Broken rotor bars
Sidebands around running speed and beating under load. Long-term trending on IRD8800 or Cloud shows the slow change.
Online monitoring products for motors
IRD5420
Loop-powered 4-20 mA vibration sensor (SS316L) for simple motor bearing monitoring.
IRD591
Vibration transmitter for continuous 4-20 mA output to PLC/DCS.
IRD7100
Machinery protection transmitter with alarm and trip relays.
IRD8100
Wall-mounted IP65 protection transmitter — field enclosure near the motor.
IRD8520
Dual-channel transmitter for motor DE/NDE or motor + driven machine.
IRD7200
Protection monitor for critical motors with local display.
IRD7400
Multi-channel protection monitor — ask for details.
IRD8800
API 670 compliant system for large HT motors and critical trains.
OLIVER
Wireless condition monitoring for fleets of motors.
IRD Cloud
Cloud-based trends, alarms and reports for every monitored motor.
Portable instruments for motor route checks
IRD202 Elite
Our recommended meter for portable motor route checks.
IRD811D
Digital vibration meter with spike energy for bearing condition.
IRD306
Compact vibration meter for quick overall checks.
Related machines
Vibration monitoring of pumps
Centrifugal and vertical pumps driven by motors.
Fans & blowers
Monitoring for motor-driven fans and blowers.