International Standardization Activities in Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics of Machines

Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines is an emerging transdiscipline ready for international standardization. Recently, Technical Committee 108 of the International Standards Organization was restructured in order that it could develop standards in the field. Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines is the marriage of an old and a new engineering art. The origins of condition monitoring, the older art, antedate by centuries the screw-driver-used-as-a-stethoscope approach to monitoring and evaluating the condition of a machine which was popular in the early years of this century. In contrast, diagnostics is only a few decades old, a product of the synergistic coupling of computer technology and systems thinking.