3VA-14 Vibration AnalyzerExamples of VA-14 applicationsThe challenge of reviving a technology from a quarter century agoThe VA-14 vibration analyzer was released on March 3, 2025, as the successor to the VA-12 vibration analyzer. Designed to measure the vibration (acceleration, velocity, and displacement) generated by factory equipment, the VA-14 measures not only vibration magnitude but also identifies vibration frequency components using an FFT analysis function, making it an ideal tool for facility maintenance departments.Kodai Yamashita of the S&V Measuring Instrument Devel-opment Section served as development project leader for the VA-14 over the roughly two years leading up to its completion. In charge of tasks ranging from scheduling management to over-seeing specifications and costs, as well as for selecting develop-ment team members, Yamashita decided early to include a fault diagnosis program as an optional feature. He chose to make this optional because he knew not all users would need this function.The person at the helm of these specification decisions was Hiromitsu Umayahara of the S&V Measuring Instrument Sales Section, who had overseen development of the previous model, the VA-12. Umayahara gathered requests for additional features from VA-12 users and feedback from sales representatives and advised the Development Section on what functions they should add or include. This initiative led to development of the VX-14D fault diagnosis program.Both Yamashita and Umayahara had a vision of their ideal product: the VA-20 fault diagnosis device released by Rion in 2000. Affectionately referred to by its nickname, MASHINDAN, because it diagnosed machines (shindan being the term for diag-nosis in Japanese), the VA-20 was about the size of a remote con-trol for an air conditioner. An innovative product for its era, it performed vibration analysis when the operator simply pressed the sensor tip against equipment to make a normal/abnormal judgment. “The VA-20 was already developed before I joined Rion, but I felt it would be a pity not to make some use of such outstanding technology,” recalls Yamashita. “I found myself increasingly wanting to incorporate the VA-20 into the VA-14.”Umayahara, too, knew from firsthand experience that there was strong de-mand for products like the MASHINDAN.“When it comes to diagnosing equipment, only skilled technicians with the requisite expertise can make accurate judgments. But not every worksite is lucky enough to have an employee like that. There’s always demand for a device that can perform machine diagnoses. Other companies offered products with diagnostic capabilities, and I wanted to take advantage of Rion’s superior technology to produce a competitive product.”The person appointed to lead the development of the VX-14D was Tomoaki Chou of the S&V Measuring Instrument Devel-opment Section. Chou recounts his major concerns upon being appointed.“The underlying theory behind the MASHINDAN had been presented at domestic engineering conferences. I believed we could perform a successful analysis by reading those papers. On the other hand, we had no idea what signals were actually being processed inside the device, even though we had its mechanical drawing in hand. Making the situation more complicated was that all colleagues who had been involved with the MASHIN-DAN development had retired. Much about the core parts of the device remained obscure.”To bring a quarter-century-old technology, whose details were a mystery, back to life in the modern era—that was the mission entrusted to Chou. Umayahara, who had commissioned the project, shared similar anxieties.“It actually was my personal wish to see a successor model to MASHINDAN, but since I didn’t have a complete understand-ing of the details of the MASHINDAN myself, I thought it would be a major challenge to understand the principles and translate them into an actual product.”With no detailed information on the MASHINDAN avail-able, Umayahara confesses he saw the completion of the VX-14D as something other than an easy-going development project, one that posed multiple hurdles.Kodai YamashitaS&V Measuring Instrument Devel-opment Section, Development De-partment, Environmental Instrument Division. Joined Rion in 2011. After spending his first three years in the S&V Measuring Instrument Manufacturing Engineering Section, he was transferred in 2014 to the Development Section, where he still works today. His primary work involves hardware development, with a focus on development of vibra-tion level meters for environmental measurement and vibration meters for industrial measurement.The VA-14 is used in various manu-facturing and maintenance settings, including maintenance and inspec-tion of machinery and equipment like motors and pumps, detection of abnormalities in bearings and gears, and analysis of natural frequencies of equipment and structures.Maintenance and inspection of machinery and equipmentThe VA-14 vibration analyzer is equipped with FFT analysis and all other functions necessary for equipment diagnosis and on-site measurement. It’s readily operated using one hand, making it ideal for on-site use. The LAN port allows remote command control and file transfer. An optional microphone connection allows users to perform both vibration and sound frequency analyses and evaluations using a single device.Detection of bearing abnormalitiesAnalysis of natural frequencies
元のページ ../index.html#5