Case Study | Abnormal Vibration in the Vacuum Pump of an Oil Filtration Unit: Smart Operations and Maintenance Proactively Prevents Bearing Wear Risks

At power and chemical‑industry sites, oil‑filtration units are essential auxiliary equipment that ensure the cleanliness of main‑equipment lubricants. The performance of the accompanying rotary‑vane vacuum pumps directly affects filtration efficiency and unit safety. If the vacuum pump’s lubrication degrades or its bearings or vanes wear, not only does its pumping capacity decline sharply, but metal debris generated by wear can also enter the oil system, causing irreversible damage to critical primary equipment.

Recently, the Zhongyun Technology Intelligent O&M platform, leveraging 24/7 online monitoring and data trend analysis, issued an early warning of an incipient bearing wear fault in the rotary‑vane vacuum pump of a large enterprise’s oil filtration system. This enabled precise on‑site guidance for scheduling a shutdown and maintenance, successfully averting production‑safety risks such as unexpected equipment downtime and damage to critical assets.

I. Vibration levels continue to rise, and the platform is issuing tiered alerts.

In mid-June 2026, the enterprise’s No. 2 oil‑filtering rotary‑vane vacuum pump was put into normal operation, and the platform began collecting real-time vibration data from multiple measurement points on both the drive end and the free end of the pump.

During monitoring, the amplitude of equipment vibration acceleration continued to rise, triggering a series of tiered alarms—including acceleration exceedance, bearing wear, and bearing anomalies. The system clearly displays the equipment ID, measurement point location, alarm level, and fault occurrence time, promptly pushing alerts to the operations and maintenance team, thereby precisely narrowing the scope of fault diagnosis and eliminating the tedious task of manually inspecting each unit one by one.

II. In-depth analysis of vibration spectra to pinpoint the root causes of lubrication failure and bearing wear.

The diagnostic team retrieves and comprehensively analyzes the equipment’s full‑cycle vibration trends, time-domain waveforms, and spectral data:

Since early June, the acceleration eigenvalues at the drive end of the vacuum pump have shown a steady upward trend, and the spectrum has exhibited typical high-frequency impact signatures indicative of bearing faults. Based on this analysis, it has been determined that the bearings at both ends of the equipment are experiencing early-stage wear, with the root cause attributed to degraded lubrication oil. In parallel, professional operation and maintenance recommendations have been issued for shutdown, disassembly, and bearing replacement, providing reliable data support for on-site inspection and repair.

3. Shut down the equipment, disassemble it, and verify the fault; replace the entire unit to completely eliminate potential hazards.

On-site maintenance personnel shut down the equipment and performed a disassembly inspection in accordance with the platform’s diagnostic recommendations, confirming that the bearings on both sides of the vacuum pump were severely worn and the lubricant had lost its effectiveness.

To eliminate the potential fault in a single step, the entire vacuum pump was replaced on-site on July 10, and vibration sensors were reinstalled at the standard locations, restoring the full‑time online monitoring system.

IV. Re‑testing and verification upon commissioning of the new unit: vibration parameters have returned to healthy operating standards.

Following the installation and commissioning of the new vacuum pump, the platform has been continuously tracking and monitoring the data:

The vibration acceleration at the pump’s drive end has decreased significantly, and the high-frequency impact signals previously caused by bearing wear have completely vanished. The vibration waveform is now smooth, with no abnormal peaks, indicating that the equipment has returned to a healthy operating condition and the fault has been fully resolved.

V. Case Review | The Three Core Implementation Values of an Intelligent Operations and Maintenance Platform

From early warning to closed-loop resolution, this vacuum pump bearing‑lubrication failure vividly demonstrates the digital operational‑management advantages of Zhongyun Technology’s intelligent O&M platform:

1. **Trend Forecasting, Proactive Early Warning**

During the equipment’s gradual degradation phase, anomalies can be detected and proactive alerts issued, allowing sufficient time to schedule maintenance in advance, avoiding shutdowns during peak production periods, and minimizing production capacity losses.

2. **Data diagnostics, precise localization**

Leveraging a multi-dimensional algorithmic model that integrates vibration acceleration, spectral analysis, and impact‑based features, the system accurately distinguishes between lubrication failures and bearing wear‑related faults, thereby eliminating unnecessary disassembly and significantly reducing the time required for fault diagnosis and resolution.

3. **End-to-end closed-loop management to safeguard equipment safety**

Abnormality alerts—intelligent diagnostics—on-site maintenance—re‑testing and verification together form a standardized operations‑and‑maintenance closed loop, ensuring stable oil‑filtration and oil‑treatment performance, preventing metallic contaminants from entering the oil system at the source, and providing long‑term protection for safe unit operation.

Zhongyun Technology continues to deepen its expertise in industrial intelligent operations and maintenance, leveraging vibration, temperature, and process‑operational data as its core. Serving critical auxiliary equipment in industries such as power generation and chemical processing, the company delivers an integrated digital solution that combines early warning, precise diagnostics, and closed-loop remediation, harnessing data to drive equipment management and helping enterprises reduce costs, boost efficiency, and ensure safe production.

Traditional manual inspections are time‑consuming and reactive, leading to high post‑failure repair costs. Zhongyun Technology’s intelligent operations and maintenance platform provides full‑lifecycle monitoring and diagnostic services for critical auxiliary equipment in the power and chemical industries.

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