A Drivetrain Diagnostics and Prognostics test bed specifically designed to simulate industrial drivetrains with capability for performing accelerated degradation of gears and bearing, either simultaneously or individually (Courtesy of Spectraquest). The test bed is used to enable and facilitate advanced diagnostics and prognostics research for multi-component systems with specific capability to investigate degradation interactions; Component-to-Component (C2C) interaction, and Component-to-System (C2S) interaction.

The test bed consists of two a two two-stage parallel shaft test gearbox. Both torsional and radial loadings can be applied to study damage signature or propagation in gears and/or bearings: the torsional load is applied via a 10 HP variable frequency AC drive with a programmable, user-defined speed profiles; and the radial load is applied to a shaft in the parallel gearbox. The effect faults like surface wear, crack tooth, chipped tooth and missing tooth can be demonstrated and induced on either spur gears or helical gears. Rolling element bearing faults like inner race, outer race, and ball damage can also be incorporated. Condition monitoring instrumentation includes accelerometers for measuring vibration, encoders for monitoring rotational speed, torques sensors, and a load cells for monitoring and radial loads applied on the gearbox shafts to accelerate bearing degradation.