The vibration criteria provided in this part of ISO 10816 apply to machine sets with, for instance, steam turbine or electrical drives, having a power above 15 kW and operating speeds between 120 r/min and 15 000 r/min.

The machine sets covered by this part of ISO 10816 include:

• steam turbines with power up to 50 MW;
• steam turbine sets with power greater than 50 MW and speeds below 1 500 r/min or above 3 600 r/min (not included in ISO 10816-2);
• rotary compressors;
• industrial gas turbines with power up to 3 MW;
• pumps of centrifugal, mixed flow or axial flow type;
• generators, except when used in hydraulic power generating and pumping plants;
• electrical motors of any type;
• blowers or fans.

The following are excluded from this part of ISO 10816:

• land-based steam turbine generator sets with power greater than 50 MW and speeds of 1 500 r/min, 1 800 r/min, 3 000 r/min, or 3 600 r/min (see ISO 10816-2);
• gas turbine machines with power greater than 3 MW (see ISO 10816-4);
• machine sets in hydraulic power generating and pumping plants (see ISO 10816-5);
• machines coupled to reciprocating machines (see ISO 10816-6);
• rotary positive displacement compressors (e.g. screw compressors);
• reciprocating compressors;
• reciprocating pumps;
• submerged motor-pumps;
• wind turbines.

The criteria of this part of ISO 10816 apply to in situ broad-band vibration measurements taken on the bearings, bearing pedestals, or housing of machines under steady-state operating conditions within the nominal operating speed range. They relate to both acceptance testing and operational monitoring. The evaluation criteria of this part of ISO 10816 are intended to apply to both continuous and non-continuous monitoring situations.

This part of ISO 10816 encompasses machines which may have gears or rolling element bearings, but does not address the diagnostic evaluation of the condition of those gears or bearings.

The criteria are applicable only for the vibration produced by the machine set itself and not for vibration which is transmitted to the machine set from external sources.