Introduction

Many different machine components are used in appliances, vehicles, aircraft, and industry. Some machine components including bearings, gears, fans, burners, cutters, and valves are used in machines built from several of these components such as pumps, compressors, electric motors, and internal combustion (IC) engines. It is impossible to discuss every type of machine and machine component here; so, the discussion is mainly concentrated on common machine components and complete machines. These machine components and machines do work, transfer energy, or convert one form of energy into another. In these processes some undesirable vibration and acoustical energy or noise is produced as an unwanted by‐product. It is the purpose of this chapter to review briefly the functioning of these machine components and machines, noise and vibration generation mechanisms, and methods of control.