Abstract: Aimed at solving the problem of multi-component separation of actual vibration signals, here a new iterative decomposition method is proposed based on a generating differential equation (GDE) method. The first step is to estimate the instantaneous frequency and amplitude envelope of the original signals using GDE, then the frequency of the first component is obtained using a lowpass filter. Second, the original signal is passed through a high-pass filter to obtain the amplitude of the first component. Finally, the first component is subtracted from the original signal and the residual value, as the new money initial value, is decomposed in the next iteration. Compared with conventional methods, the proposed method is illustrated and verified by the simulation signals. When used for analysis of rolling bearing experimental signals, the results demonstrate that the approach is practical and effective.