Condition monitoring of worm gears

Condition monitoring of key components in rotating machines such as gearboxes ensure reduction in costly unscheduled machine down time. This paper explores the possibility of monitoring seeded defects on worm gears with acoustic emission, and, comparisons are made with vibration analysis. Unlike other types of gearboxes, monitoring of worm gearboxes is not widely documented. It is shown that AE offers better diagnostic capability than vibration analysis.