Condition Based Maintenance of Bearings
CBM or Predictive Maintenance (PdM) of Bearings includes Condition Monitoring of Bearings, Root Cause Analysis, Acoustic Lubrication, Corrective Actions & Preventive Actions (CAPA).
CBM = CM + RCA + Acoustic Lubrication + CAPA
The techniques used to carry condition monitoring of bearings is Ultrasound Measurement & Thermography. Ultrasound Measurement is not only the best tool but the only best tool for CM of bearings. The ultrasound measurement gives 3 values, Peak, RMS & max RMS. Trending these 3 values can give us an idea of the condition of the bearing. The Ultrasound Measurement detects faults due to contaminated lubricant, mixed lubricant, insufficient lubrication, over lubrication, etc, that too at a very early stage. Vibration Analysis of bearing has limitations and it shows bearing faults when the bearing goes faulty (failed bearing) or if the lubricant is contaminated with metal particles. That means vibration analysis detect the faults at a much later stage.
Around 80% of bearing failures are due to Lubrication issues. Here the importance of Ultrasound Measurement as a CM technique gets established.
Acoustic lubrication Confirms right quantity & quality of lubricant in bearing. The Corrective Actions may be Replacement of the Bearing, Repair/ Replacement of Shaft, Repair/Replacement of Bearing Cartridge (Housing), etc. The instrument SDT 270 or other SDT instruments are the best for the acoustic lubrication program.
Our CBM of Bearing Program confirms a huge reduction on the cost of bearing replacement, No Bearing Failure – once all the bearings under CBM are set healthy.
