Overview of Condition-Monitoring Techniques

Equipment failures are many times preceded by an advanced warning period, and maintenance techniques used to detect this warning are known as condition-monitoring (CM) tasks. More specifically, CM tasks are maintenance techniques that are used to detect the onset of an equipment failure so that the failure can be prevented, or the consequences associated with the failure can be mitigated by providing the opportunity for pre-emptive action to be taken. This chapter provides descriptions of and specific examples for general CM categories, and a discussion of factors that should be considered when selecting a CM technique.