Condition Monitoring

a dial indicator should give backlast measurements. a strobe light might give you some evidence as to vibration.

Gear mesh = Number of teeth x shaft speed. Vibration analysis is a excellent tool for measuring gear mesh frequencys. You'll want to use acceleration measurments, and time waveform. It is important to set your frequency range (Fmax) high enough to see at least 3 times gear mesh frequency.

When teeth begin to wear, two things will happen. The first is the sidebands of gear mesh will increase in level. The sidebands will correspond to the speed of the gear with the wear.

The second thing that occurs is that the natural frequency of the gear is excited. this peak will also exhibit sidebands, and as a natural frequency, it is likely to have a broader base.

Major concerns with gear box are broken / chipped teeth, high backlash, tooth wear, misalignment, eccentricity. Time waveform , spike energy, FFT analysis are best suited to vibration analysis of gear boxes. Proper installation procedures adherence is necessary for efficient and trouble free operation.

Go to reliabilityweb.com they have a lot of useful info. There is a lot to this and requires the right equipment and training. Good Luck.

Tri Axial vibration measurements on the gear housing need to be obtained.

Catch your data at 3.5 times the fundamental GMF.

From there you can see if the data collected is from chipped, worn or broken teeth.

Or give me a PM and we can come to your site and provide a solution.

Cheers