Two stage helical gearbox fault detection and diagnosis based on continuous wavelet transformation of time synchronous averaged vibration signals

Vibration signals from a gearbox are usually very noisy which makes it difficult to find reliable symptoms of a fault in a multistage gearbox. This paper explores the use of time synchronous average (TSA) to suppress the noise and Continue Wavelet Transformation (CWT) to enhance the non-stationary nature of fault signal for more accurate fault diagnosis. The results obtained in diagnosis an incipient gear breakage show that fault diagnosis results can be improved by using an appropriate wavelet. Moreover, a new scheme based on the level of wavelet coefficient amplitudes of baseline data alone, without faulty data samples, is suggested to select an optimal wavelet.