For mining teams without in-house vibration specialists, SKF Quick Collect gets miners started with condition monitoring. This pocketable tool puts simple, live condition data on your phone or tablet – and enables sites to move from reactive to proactive condition-based care.
Many sites still rely on “screwdriver to the ear” inspections or wait for a line to sound wrong. Quick Collect offers a smarter first step.
“No formal vibration training is required,” SKF business development manager Miller Ollukaran said. “The sensor streams live data to a mobile device and shows green, yellow or red bands aligned to ISO alert levels.”
In practice, that means a pump on “green” can stay in service, a screen drive drifting into “yellow” goes on the watchlist, and a conveyor head gearbox flashing “red” triggers inspection or escalation to a vibration analyst.
“It’s an entry-level indicator,” SKF subject matter expert – vibration analysis Steve Bowman said. “If it goes red, inspect the machine or bring in an analyst to determine what’s actually happening.”
Three signals that tell a story
Quick Collect captures velocity (mm/s), enveloped acceleration, and temperature. Each points to a different family of faults:
- Velocity: imbalance, looseness, misalignment. For example, if a fan’s velocity gradually increases from 3.5 to 5.2 mm/s over two weeks, it often indicates that a foot is loosening or misalignment is developing.
- Enveloped acceleration: early bearing distress. Example: a take-up pulley bearing that looks fine on velocity but shows rising envelope peaks long before any audible noise appears.
- Temperature: lubrication and loading. If the drive-end (DE) bearing on a motor remains warm after lubrication, it may indicate that the grease did not reach the raceway.
“It monitors three simple parameters that cover most rotating-plant risks,” Ollukaran said. “Velocity for things that move out of line, envelope for early bearing issues, and temperature for lubrication and load.”
“Temperature rise will often be part of a bearing problem,” Bowman added. “Envelope spikes can also signal poor lubrication before a classic defect pattern appears.”
Quick Collect is an entry-level tool. “It doesn’t tell what’s wrong; it tells that something is happening and warrants further investigation,” Ollukaran said, to which Bowman agrees: “Use it to quickly check the condition of multiple assets, rather than performing detailed analysis on a single machine.”
For teams rotating through shifts, the workflow matters. “The process is guided and ‘operator-proof’ with pictorial prompts,” SKF condition monitoring manager Nauman Rana said. “Graphics show horizontal, vertical, and axial directions on a motor-pump image, so the sensor goes on the right spot every time.”
Data exports as CSV for quick trending, or connects to the ProCollect app and SKF Enlight Center (web-based) for shared dashboards and histories.
“One subscription includes up to 50 users across functions,” Rana noted, “so maintenance, reliability and contractor teams see the same picture.”
A common field use is greasing validation. “Take a snapshot before and after. A drop in velocity and envelope confirms the grease hit the raceway and prevents both under- and over-lubrication.”
Operator rounds often live on paper. With SKF Enlight Centre, inspection points can include process values: suction pressure on a compressor, oil flow on a lube skid, or gearbox level checks. “Those checks can be digitised alongside vibration and temperature,” Ollukaran said. “It puts cause-and-effect in one history – for example, a vibration spike lining up with a day of low oil flow.”
Quick Collect’s roughly eight-hour battery, 1.8-metre drop test, and hazardous-area variant suit rough duty work. “It looks small, but it’s built for field conditions,” Ollukaran said. A kit option adds a remote sensor and cable for tight spaces or points behind guards.
In SKF’s five-step reliability path – connect, detect, inform, improve, engage – Quick Collect covers the connect/detect stages, while SKF analysts, alignment tools and application engineers help translate findings into fewer failures.
“Training in bearing mounting, shaft alignment and vibration fundamentals are the addons offered by SKF which help the customers in making their plant reliable,” Rana said.
“Condition monitoring isn’t a bolt-on cost,” Bowman said. “Treated as part of the maintenance philosophy, it pays for itself in avoided breakdowns and steadier output.”