Skip to the courses
Skip to main content
TIERA Learn · 101
Courses Badges How it works TCAT Verify a credential Start free
Log in
TIERA 101 · Free · self-paced

Read the machine.
Earn the badge.

Every failing machine tells you first — in vibration. Free, physics-grounded primers for maintenance & reliability engineers, academic researchers and students alike: go from zero to reading a spectrum with confidence, then earn a verifiable digital badge for the climb.

Start free Browse courses
65 enrolled No reviews yet
10 primers 3 badges Free & self-paced
PhonoVibe · live1× — 400 Hz
The ladder

One signal, three tracks, three badges.

An open climb from Foundations to Diagnostics to Advanced. Pass a track's course exams and the next track is yours; its badge exam is optional — that is how you claim the title, not how you move on. Verified for life at certify.tieraonline.in.

  1. Vibration Measurement Analyst badge — Available
    Track 01 Vibration Foundations Vibration Measurement Analyst Available
    1 2 3
  2. Machinery Diagnostics Analyst badge — Available
    Track 02 Machinery Diagnostics Machinery Diagnostics Analyst Available
    4 5 6
  3. Advanced Vibration & CM Analyst badge — Available
    Track 03 Advanced Vibration & CM Advanced Vibration & CM Analyst Available
    7 8 9 10
Beyond 101 — the paid credential
TCAT I–IV
TIERA-issued · paid · in development
TCAT — Vibration Analyst, Category I–IV

A separate, paid TIERA credential that assesses analysts who already work with vibration data. Nothing on this ladder is required for it, or counts towards it.

What TCAT is

Open ladder · badge exams optional · verified at certify.tieraonline.in

See the catalog
Beyond 101 · paid credential

When you already read machines for a living.

TCAT is TIERA’s own vibration analyst credential, Category I to IV. It assesses people who already work with vibration data — it does not teach the subject from zero, and nothing you do here on TIERA 101 is required for it, or counts towards it. The 101 primers stay free either way.

In development — the syllabus is in preparation, and TCAT is not open for enrolment yet.

  • Cat I Vibration measurement Verified work experience alone — no prior category needed.
  • Cat IIbuilt first Fault diagnosis Verified work experience alone — Category I is not a prerequisite.
  • Cat III Advanced diagnosis Experience plus the category below.
  • Cat IV Specialist topics Experience plus the category below.

TCAT is a mature-entry scheme: Categories I and II open on verified work experience alone, so an experienced analyst is not made to climb rungs they do not need.

See the live lab Compare the four levels Where TCAT sits — and when not to buy it Keep me posted

The live lab is free and needs no account — it runs real computed spectra in your browser. TCAT itself is TIERA-issued and aligned with the ISO 18436-2 body of knowledge; it is not accredited, and not a substitute for a certificate from an accredited certification body.

Catalog

Ten primers, grouped by badge.

All ten are live now, across all three tracks — nothing is waiting to be released. Start any course you like — your progress is remembered in the engine and flows straight back here.

VF
Track 01 · Available now

Vibration Foundations

3 courses
Free

Vibration 101 — Foundations

What vibration is, why machines shake, and how amplitude, frequency and phase describe every fault.

  • Study time55–100 min
  • Lessons32
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Read amplitude, frequency and phase; count in Hz, CPM and orders; tell a healthy machine from a sick one.

Track 01 Start
Free

Signal Processing 101

Time to frequency: sampling, the FFT, windows and resolution — read a spectrum without guessing.

  • Study time50–85 min
  • Lessons29
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Sampling and aliasing; the FFT; windows, leakage, resolution and averaging — read a spectrum without guessing.

Track 01 Start
Free

Accelerometer & DAQ Selection 101

Pick the right accelerometer, mounting and sample rate so your measurement is honest, not artefact.

  • Study time85–125 min
  • Lessons46
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Choose accelerometer, mounting and sample rate; avoid mounted-resonance and aliasing artefacts; IEPE and cabling.

Track 01 Start
Badge exam · optional

Vibration Measurement Analyst

Covers capturing a measurement and reading a spectrum.

50 questions · 90% to pass · 2 attempts · 60 minutes

Whole track: 3–5 h study · 107 lessons · 75 course-exam questions, then this exam

Introduces some ISO 18436-2 Category I topics · partial coverage · certificate per course, badge per track

Complete all 3 courses to sit this exam

Each course ends with a 25-question exam · 90% to pass · 2 attempts. The badge exam is how you claim the title, not how you move on.

MD
Track 02 · Available now

Machinery Diagnostics

3 courses
Free

Measurement Setup 101

Routes, triax points, units and bands — set up a repeatable measurement that trends cleanly.

  • Study time60–100 min
  • Lessons38
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Set Fmax, lines and averages; build a repeatable route that trends; verify a measurement is honest.

Track 02 Start
Free

Machinery Fault Diagnosis 101

Unbalance, misalignment, looseness — match the spectrum signature to the mechanical cause.

  • Study time35–70 min
  • Lessons20
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Match spectrum signatures to mechanical causes: unbalance, misalignment, looseness, bent shaft, belts.

Track 02 Start
Free

Bearing & Gear Analysis 101

BPFO, BPFI, gear mesh and envelope demodulation — catch defects while they are still early.

  • Study time50–90 min
  • Lessons26
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to BPFO, BPFI, BSF and FTF; envelope demodulation; gear mesh and sidebands; the four stages of failure.

Track 02 Start
Badge exam · optional

Machinery Diagnostics Analyst

Covers naming a fault from its signature.

50 questions · 90% to pass · 2 attempts · 60 minutes

Whole track: 2.5–4.5 h study · 84 lessons · 75 course-exam questions, then this exam

Introduces some ISO 18436-2 Category II topics · partial coverage · certificate per course, badge per track

Complete all 3 courses to sit this exam

Each course ends with a 25-question exam · 90% to pass · 2 attempts. The badge exam is how you claim the title, not how you move on.

AV
Track 03 · Available now

Advanced Vibration & CM

4 courses
Free

Balancing & Alignment 101

Single- and two-plane balancing and shaft alignment — fix the fault, not just read it.

  • Study time50–80 min
  • Lessons29
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Single- and two-plane balancing with trial weights and phasors; shaft alignment and thermal growth.

Track 03 Start
Free

Modal & Resonance 101

Natural frequencies, mode shapes and resonance — why a small force becomes a big problem.

  • Study time45–70 min
  • Lessons22
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Natural frequencies, mode shapes, damping; run a bump test and a coast-down; separate forcing from resonance.

Track 03 Start
Free

Acoustics & Noise 101

Sound vs vibration, weighting and noise sources — TIERA home turf, made approachable.

  • Study time50–90 min
  • Lessons28
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to The decibel and why it is logarithmic; weighting; octave bands; trace noise to its source and treat it.

Track 03 Start
Free

AI Condition Monitoring 101

Automatic anomaly detection and the data flywheel — where the analyst and the model meet.

  • Study time50–80 min
  • Lessons24
  • Exam25 Q · 90% · 2 tries

You will be able to Continuous monitoring, baselines and alarms; features; anomaly detection vs classification, and its limits.

Track 03 Start
Badge exam · optional

Advanced Vibration & CM Analyst

Covers correcting faults and stopping them recurring.

50 questions · 90% to pass · 2 attempts · 60 minutes

Whole track: 3–5.5 h study · 103 lessons · 100 course-exam questions, then this exam

Introduces some ISO 18436-2 Category III topics · partial coverage · certificate per course, badge per track

Complete all 4 courses to sit this exam

Each course ends with a 25-question exam · 90% to pass · 2 attempts. The badge exam is how you claim the title, not how you move on.

How you move through

Pass a course exam to complete that course. Finish every course in a track and the next track is yours — the badge exam is optional.

TIERA 101 Merit Earn any 2 of the 3 track badges
TIERA 101 Graduate Earn all 3 track badges · all 10 courses · full programme

TIERA 101 is a free primer and a TIERA-issued credential. It introduces some ISO 18436-2 topics — partial coverage in every case — and is not an accredited ISO certification. Its hours do not count towards the formal training ISO 18436 requires, and nothing you do here is required for TCAT or counts towards it.

How it works

Learn, simulate, certify.

The same loop a working analyst runs — compressed into short, self-paced primers you can finish in an evening.

Learn the physics

Plain-language lessons build the mental model — amplitude, frequency, phase — with interactive spectra, not walls of maths.

Simulate the fault

Drive a virtual machine and watch the spectrum change as unbalance, misalignment and bearing defects appear.

Earn the credential

Pass the check and the engine issues a certificate on the spot. Clear a whole track and earn a shareable digital badge.

Narration

Get the best from the narration.

Every lesson is spoken aloud. In the deep-dive sections it is a two-person conversation — Arun, a senior vibration engineer, and Priya, a technician asking the question you were about to ask. The voices come from your browser, so the browser you choose is what decides whether they sound human or robotic.

The whole fix

Open the courses in Microsoft Edge.

Edge carries its own natural voices — including the Indian-English pair, Prabhat and Neerja, that these courses are written for. Chrome carries none of them and falls back to the old flat, robotic voice: same words, much worse listening. This is the same answer on Windows 10 and on Windows 11, and there is nothing to install on either.

Open it in Edge

Paste the course link into Microsoft Edge and sign in there. That is the entire setup — there is nothing to download and nothing to configure.

Stay online while it speaks

Edge's natural voices stream from Microsoft, so keep your connection up during a lesson. Drop offline and Edge falls back to the flat local voice until you reconnect.

Drive it from the course header

Press 🎧 Deep dive in the course header to open the narration panel.

  • Play / Pause
  • Replay
  • Progress bar — click to jump
  • Speed 1.0×–1.5×
  • Volume
  • Mute
  • Arun's voice
  • Priya's voice

Both voice pickers default to “choose for me”. Pick a voice yourself and the course never overrides it.

Do I need to install voices in Windows?

No — and it is worth knowing why, because the two pages you would go looking for are both dead ends for a course in a browser.

  • Windows 10 & 11 · does not helpSettings → Time & language → Speech → Manage voices → Add voices
  • Windows 11 only · does not helpSettings → Accessibility → Narrator → Narrator's voice → Add natural voices

The first installs the older, flat legacy voices — more languages, not better sound. The second does install genuinely natural voices, but Windows keeps them for the Narrator screen reader and never hands them to a web page, so a course cannot use them. Edge's own voices are the ones you actually hear.

Which voices should I choose?

Leave both pickers on “choose for me” and the course does the right thing: it casts Indian-English voices — Prabhat and Neerja — ahead of everything else, so Arun and Priya get the accent they were written in, and falls back through UK and US English only if it has to. Both speakers always come from the same family, because one modern voice next to one 2010 voice sounds worse than either pair.

It still sounds flat and robotic.

You are almost certainly in Chrome. If you are already in Edge, check you are online and reload the lesson once — Edge sometimes finishes loading its voice list after the page. If the pickers under 🎧 Deep dive only offer names like David and Zira, your browser has no natural voices to give it.

Can I turn the narration off?

Yes — mute it in the 🎧 Deep dive panel. Be aware that the deep dives carry detail that is not printed on the slide, so you will get more out of the course with the sound on.

Why TIERA

Training from the team that builds the instruments.

TIERA designs the sensors, the software and the analytics used on real rotating machinery. This is the same knowledge, made approachable.

10
Primers
3
Digital badges
100%
Free to start
∞
Verified for life
FAQ

The honest answers.

Is TIERA 101 really free?

Yes. The 101 primers and their certificates are free and self-paced. Create an account to save your progress and collect badges.

Is this ISO 18436 certification?

No. TIERA 101 gives you working fundamentals. It is not equivalent to, nor a substitute for, ISO 18436 Category I–IV vibration-analyst certification. TIERA's own paid analyst credential, TCAT, is a separate product — and it is TIERA-issued and aligned with the ISO 18436-2 body of knowledge, not accredited either. For an accredited certificate you need a certification body accredited to certify against ISO 18436-2.

Do I have to finish 101 before TCAT?

No, and finishing 101 does not count towards TCAT. They are different products for different jobs: 101 teaches the subject from zero and is free; TCAT assesses analysts who already work with vibration data, on verified experience. If you are new to vibration, 101 is still where to start — including if TCAT is where you intend to finish.

How do the badges work?

Pass a course exam for a certificate. Clear every course in a track and an optional badge exam earns a verifiable digital badge. The next track opens as soon as the course exams are passed — you do not have to sit the badge exam to carry on.

Do I need any prior maths or engineering?

No. The primers start from zero and lean on interactive spectra and simulations rather than heavy maths. If you can run a machine, you can follow along.

Start reading the machine tonight.

Create a free account, open Vibration 101 and earn your first certificate before you close the tab.

Create free account Browse the catalog

From TIERA

Already working with vibration data?

TCAT is TIERA’s own vibration analyst credential. It assesses people who already work on machines — it does not teach the subject from zero, and nothing you do here on TIERA 101 is required before it, or counts towards it. If you are curious, the live lab runs real computed spectra in your browser.

See the live lab Compare the four levels Where TCAT sits — and when not to buy it

The four TCAT categories

  • Cat I Vibration measurement
  • Cat II Fault diagnosis
  • Cat III Advanced diagnosis
  • Cat IV Specialist topics
TIERA

Sound & vibration engineering from Thiruvananthapuram. We build the sensors, the software and the training that go with them.

Learn
  • All 101 courses
  • Badge ladder
  • Start Vibration 101
  • Narration & voice setup
Credentials
  • Verify a credential
  • About TIERA badges
  • TCAT — the paid credential
  • TCAT live lab (free)
  • tieraonline.in
© 2026 TIERA. Free beginner primers — not ISO 18436 certification. Powered by TIERA 101.tieraonline.in