Industrial applicability of Electric Signature Analysis as a diagnostic tool for Condition Based Maintenance: a case study

The Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) is a non-invasive technique applicable for Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) of electro-mechanical systems, founded on capturing the equipment supply signals and analyzing them to detect malfunctions or incipient faults. Although ESA provides diagnostic and prognostic information comparable to conventional CBM techniques, it requires access to electric supply lines only, or to the embedded sensors of the equipment; moreover, it does not require any specific sensor for data acquisition. These properties allow cheap diagnostics and prognostics monitoring without interruptions. In spite of its numerous and important advantages in supporting costless maintenance activities, applications of ESA techniques in industry, especially in CBM, appear still scarce and limited. In such a context, the purpose of the paper is to present and discuss the technical principles of ESA and some experimental results of its use as a diagnostic tool.