Effective Bearing Failure Analysis

The accurate diagnosis of a bearing failure is imperative to prevent repeated failures and their additional expenses. While performing failure analysis is commonly left to outside vendors, the actual collecting of information can make a great difference in correctly diagnosing a bearing failure.

Most on site personnel have the advantage of inspecting the equipment before, during and after disassembly. At every stage, information can be recorded for future consideration. One of the most overlooked items when removing a bearing from service is taking a lubrication sample for analysis. Conclusions may never be drawn without the knowledge of the lubricant’s condition and quantity as found in the equipment upon disassembly.

Similarly, omitting information to someone providing bearing analysis can cause confusion and be misleading. For this reason, it is important that not only the bearing be returned for analysis, but information about the equipment and the equipment’s history accompany the bearing. For example, a prolonged lubrication problem may be overlooked if a lubricant sample is provided from the bearing but the examiner was not notified that the equipment was freshly lubricated after becoming noisy and taken out of service.

NTN offers a failure analysis service and a request form which outlines some of the more common information required to conduct a thorough analysis. More detailed information on typical failure analysis modes and failure analysis procedures can be requested from our Technical Support Team at 1-800-323-2358.