64 Machinery Condition Monitoring: Principles and Practices

6.3  Measurement Errors

Despite the best efforts and intentions of the maintenance engineer in the
field, errors in measurement creep in. This could be because of several
­reasons, such as lack of knowledge about the measuring equipment, incor-
rect installation of the transducer and its accessories, using the transducer
to measure a quantity it is not designed to measure, and so on. Efforts are
always made to measure the physical quantity most accurately, because
the interpretation of the machine quality depends on the measured data.
Measurement errors can be broadly classified into two categories, random
error and bias error. Random error in a measurement can be reduced by
performing an arithmetic average of the measured results. This means that a
number of measurements need to be done. Bias error or offset error is due to
a fixed amount of difference between the actual quantity and the m ­ easured
­quantity. This shift or difference is usually known as the offset or the bias. Bias
error can be reduced by comparing the measured quantity with the actual
quantity, which should be present. The actual quantity is determined by
­calibration against a known reference quantity. There are instruments that
are precise, and such instruments, in repeated measurements of the same
physical quantity, always produce the same output. An ideal ­measurement
must thus be both precise and accurate, with no errors.
The smallest mechanical quantity that can be measured is the least count
that is available on the display of the measuring equipment. The uncertainty
in a measurement is one half of the least count available on the measuring
equipment. Thus, when selecting an instrument for m ­ easurement, one must
be aware of its accuracy, precision, and least count.

6.4  Calibration Principles

Instruments can be calibrated in several ways. The most common method of
calibration is to compare with a reference standard that is considered to be
more accurate and precise than the instrument being calibrated. Usually, in
practice or in test laboratories, it is a good practice to have one set of the same
transducers (known as a laboratory reference) kept apart from other transduc-
ers used in day-to-day field measurements. It is a good practice to ­compare the
readings of the laboratory reference with the remaining transducers at regular
intervals or when there is a need to cross check both readings. The laboratory
standard or tool room standard is in turn calibrated against a better regional or
national standard maintained at the accredited test laboratories.
Many times in the field while performing a measurement on a machine,
there are instances in the measurement chain like amplifiers whose gain