Fault Detection of Bearings using Condition Monitoring Techniques

Failure of anti-friction bearings is dangerous as it damages rotating machinery, entails production loss and may cause injuries to persons [1,2]. So, a very important duty of the maintenance department is to prevent these failures in its initial stage. Condition monitoring of antifriction bearings in rotating machinery using vibration analysis is a very well established method. It offers the advantages of reducing down time and improving maintenance efficiency. The machine need not to be stopped for diagnosis [3]. Even new or geometrically perfect bearings may generate vibration due to contact forces between the various components of bearings. Analysis of vibration and sound signature of rolling element bearings is an established tool for early detection of progressing bearing faults. In this paper, an attempt is made to elucidate the defect frequencies and their amplitudes for ball bearings having single and multiple localized defects.