Signal processing methods for detecting misalignment of a claw clutch

摘要

Misalignment is a common problem, and several handbooks on condition monitoring provide instructions on how it can be detected. Very often monitoring the component of rotational frequency and some of its harmonics in the frequency domain is considered a solution to this problem. This can indeed be a suitable method in many cases, but when misaligned shafts are coupled by a claw clutch, it is not necessarily the best way of detecting misalignment. This is due to the mechanical properties of the claw clutch. When a claw clutch is misaligned it can behave in a rather different way than e.g. a pin coupling, which was a very common coupling type at the time when traditional ways for detecting misalignment were developed. This paper discusses some signal processing methods, which could provide a more effective and reliable indicator for the misalignment of a claw clutch. Real order derivatives, computational filtering in frequency domain, weighted l_p norms and MIT measurement indices are utilised.