WEAR PARTICLE ANALYSIS OF AN ANTIFRICTION BEARING

Most maintenance practitioners have become familiar with machine condition monitoring through the use of portable non destroying measurement systems such as vibration, oil analysis, thermography. These portable systems are typically utilized as part of predictive maintenance program that is expensive and time consuming. With recent advances in the field of lubricant condition monitoring utilize the concept of real time condition monitoring with the help of expert systems that is highlighted through a case study. The present work describes the development of an expert system that can be used to determine the condition of lubricating oil in circulation in a centralized lubrication system attributed for lubricating antifriction bearings. It begins with basic concepts of oil analysis, lubrication, with analysis of bearings and finally the development of an expert system pertinent to wear particle analysis. The lubricant contaminant monitoring through advanced diagnostic techniques for critical equipment is a very powerful maintenance tool in any production plant. It predicts the condition of the oil as well as the machine in advance failure mode. The information may be figured out from particle morphology such as composition, size distribution aspect, shape and concentration. Lubricating oil samples were collected on a schedule basis from identified critical centralized system of lubrication to lubricate ball bearings. These samples were analyzed in advance diagnostic tools for the determination of shape, size, morphology and texture of the wear particle associated with the lubricant in circulation.