Condition monitoring with Vexron
Online vibration monitoring system for Indian plants
Continuous vibration monitoring for motors, pumps, fans and gearboxes. Vexron works with the sensors and PLC data you already have, or sensors you add, and runs on an edge gateway inside your plant.
What is an online vibration monitoring system?
An online vibration monitoring system measures machine vibration all the time, instead of once a month with a handheld meter. Sensors on the bearings feed an edge device. Software compares each reading with ISO zones and the machine's own normal pattern, and your team gets an alert when a fault starts to develop.
The system
What a vibration monitoring system includes
Four parts, from the bearing to the person who fixes it. Vexron is the edge gateway, the software and the alerts. It reads the sensors; we do not make them.
- 01
Sensors
Vibration sensors on bearing housings, plus temperature and motor current where available. Use the ones you have and add more only on critical machines.
- 02
Edge gateway
Collects data from sensors, PLCs and SCADA over Modbus, Siemens S7, OPC-UA or EtherNet/IP. Works out vibration metrics on site and stores 100,000+ readings if the network drops.
- 03
Software and models
Compares each reading with ISO 10816 / ISO 20816 zones and with the machine's own normal pattern. VMI-1 names the likely fault.
- 04
Alerts and actions
Alerts ranked by severity, sent by SMS or WhatsApp or passed to SAP S/4HANA, your MES or MQTT, so a warning becomes a job.
Choosing sensors for the first time? Read our industrial IoT sensor buyer's guide and the guide to retrofitting sensors on old machines.
Machines
Which machines it monitors
Electric motors
Bearing wear, imbalance and looseness, read from vibration together with bearing temperature and motor current.
Pumps
Bearing wear and misalignment on process and utility pumps, where a failure stops a line.
Fans and blowers
ID, FD, cooler and bag-house fans. Imbalance and bearing faults show up early as a change in the vibration signature.
Gearboxes and drivetrains
Gear-mesh and bearing defects in critical drivetrains, caught before they damage the rest of the gearbox.
Compressors and chillers
Vibration trends plus power draw, so idle running is counted in rupees as well as flagged.
Kiln drives and mills
Motors, gearboxes and pinion bearings on kiln and mill drives. Slow-turning kiln parts need temperature and power trends instead.
Fault detection runs on our VMI-1 model, which separates bearing, alignment, imbalance and looseness signatures instead of raising one generic alarm. For a cement line, see what to monitor on the kiln, mills and fans.
Specification
Vexron vibration monitoring at a glance
For purchase and projects engineers writing a spec. Full detail for plant IT is on the Vexron page.
| Data sources | Existing vibration sensors, PLC and SCADA tags, or sensors added through Vexron |
|---|---|
| Signals | Vibration, temperature, power or current |
| Protocols | Modbus TCP and RTU (RS-485), Siemens S7-300/400/1200/1500, OPC-UA, Rockwell EtherNet/IP |
| Edge metrics | RMS velocity, peak acceleration, crest factor, kurtosis |
| Severity zones | ISO 10816 / ISO 20816 zones A to D, plus each machine's own baseline |
| Fault types | Bearing wear, misalignment, imbalance, looseness, gear-mesh defects |
| Network drops | Edge buffer holds 100,000+ readings and sends them in time order when the link returns |
| Alerts | Ranked by severity; SMS and WhatsApp; SAP S/4HANA, MES and MQTT |
| Edge hardware | Industrial PCs and single-board computers, down to ESP32 boards |
| Dashboard | Web app and Windows desktop app |
Alerts
Alerts based on ISO zones and each machine's baseline
ISO 10816, now largely replaced by ISO 20816, sorts a vibration reading into four zones. The limits depend on machine size and how it is mounted, so one site-wide threshold is almost always wrong.
Vexron alerts on both: the ISO zone, and a change from the machine's own normal pattern. A machine can sit in zone B and still be getting worse week by week.
- Zone A
Good
Typical of a newly commissioned machine.
- Zone B
Acceptable
Fine for long-term running.
- Zone C
Plan a repair
Not acceptable for long-term running. Schedule the work.
- Zone D
Act now
Severe enough to cause damage to the machine.
Monitoring, not protection. Vexron watches machines and predicts faults. It is not an API 670 machinery protection system, so keep your existing protection relays and trip circuits in place.
Online or route-based?
Do you need continuous monitoring at all?
Not on every machine. Handheld route readings are cheap to start and fine for machines where a failure is not costly. Their weakness is the gap between rounds: a fault that develops quickly can go from fine to failed before the next walk.
Continuous online monitoring pays off on critical machines, where one failure between rounds is expensive. Most plants use both.
A fair, side-by-side look at both approaches, including when route-based checks are the better choice.
Online vs route-based monitoringGetting started
How a rollout works
Pick the critical machines
List the machines whose stop costs you the most. Start with a handful, not the whole plant.
Short assessment
We check what data you already have (PLC tags, SCADA, sensors) and what needs adding.
Install and learn
The edge gateway goes in and VMI-1 learns each machine's normal running pattern.
Alerts, review, expand
Your team gets alerts, checks them against the baseline, and adds machines once they prove useful.
What it costs
There is no fixed list price. The cost depends on how many machines you monitor, the data you already have and the sensors you need to add. We quote per plant configuration after a short assessment. To size the problem first, put a rupee figure on one hour of downtime.
Downtime cost calculatorCase study
Vexron at Triveni Steel Corporation
Sensors on critical machinery, connected to an AI analytics platform for live health monitoring and failure prediction.
Read the case studyYes, where the data can be reached. Vexron reads sensors wired into your PLCs or SCADA, and devices that speak Modbus, Siemens S7, OPC-UA or EtherNet/IP. Where a critical machine has no sensor, one can be added through the Vexron platform.
No. We are not a sensor manufacturer. Vexron is the edge and software layer that reads the sensors, works out the metrics, spots faults and sends alerts.
No. Vexron is for monitoring and prediction. It is not an API 670 machinery protection system, so it should not replace your protection relays or trip circuits.
It depends on the fault and how fast it develops. Bearing wear, misalignment and imbalance usually show a rising signature days to weeks before failure. Vexron flags that trend early, so the repair can go on a planned stop.
The edge gateway keeps collecting and stores 100,000+ readings locally. When the link returns, it sends them to the central system in time order.
There is no fixed list price for Vexron. The cost depends on how many machines you monitor, the data you already have and the sensors you need to add. We quote per plant configuration after a short assessment.
Related reading
Guides, tools and comparisons
Send us your machine list.
Tell us which machines you want to watch, whether they already have sensors and which PLC or SCADA you run. We will tell you what Vexron can read today and what needs adding, before you commit to anything.