Saturday, 3 August 2013

Causes of Bearing Failures

Causes of Bearing Failures

There are many possible causes of bearing failures, and most times factories do produce bad bearings without much warning. Companies that observe the highest level of quality control for their facilities have a greater chance of eliminating such failures than those that lack proper maintenance practices.
Manufacturing defects are the most common cause of bearing failures this is because all bearings actually have some kinds of defects. But when they are graded accordingly, these defects can be remedied. The highest quality bearings are easily distinguished from the lowest quality ones through their degree of defects.
Further research and analysis have resulted in the conclusion that these defects do not cause too much harm that may lead to major bearing failures. Other major causes of failures in bearings include: contamination, which may be due to moisture; lack of lubrication; and over stress.

Benefits of Vibration Analysis

Pile-of-bearingsVibration analysis allows companies to effectively monitor and detect defects of bearings before more damage can occur. Thus, benefit of its use is being able to save a lot of money. When machine bearing failure is detected earlier, corrective maintenance to the machinery can be done prior to occurrence of possible disasters.
Therefore, purchase of vibration equipment to be used during routine plant maintenance is a very important factor to be considered by every manufacturing company.
Understanding and evaluation of machinery vibration is a complex process but it can be very beneficial for predictive maintenance practice.

How Vibration Analysis Works

Rotating equipment and machinery vibrate to some extent. Units with older bearings have higher chances of vibrating more dramatically and every vibration can be very distinct. Continuous equipment monitoring and evaluation allows the plant technicians to recognize and identify early wear and tear signs before further damage occurs.
Vibration Analysis is the technique used to identify early sign of machine failure, which allows machinery and equipment to be either repaired or replaced prior to expensive and destructive failure occurrence. Vibration analysis equipment uses sensors like tachometers and accelerometers in effectively monitoring of possible occurrence of bearing failures.

Traditional Maintenance Techniques versus Vibration Analysis

Tradition methods for machinery maintenance can be predictive wherein the components of equipment units are replaced regularly on a fixed schedule whether they are worn or still working.
Traditional maintenance can also be reactive, wherein equipment unit components are repaired after a break down.
In this modern time, these two types of traditional maintenance techniques are no longer ideal and acceptable. Although they are still used across many heavy industry businesses, some of the newly operational companies and manufacturing plants are now making use of modern techniques such as vibration analysis.
The reason the use of vibration analysis has become very popular is because is allows companies to prevent bearing failures long before they can happen. Bearing monitoring has become a significant part of manufacturing system maintenance and this is the main job of vibration analysis. As soon as abnormal vibrations have been detected, technicians and plant managers can start formulating the best possible solutions. The bearing can be repaired or replaced; either one will be a cost-effective alternative to complete unit repair or replacement.


This entry was posted in Bearing Failure, Predictive Maintenance Programs and tagged Vibration. Bookmark the permalink.

No comments:

Post a Comment