Main Causes of Bearing Failures: The Role of Lubrication
When bearing failure is seen, the first response is usually adding more grease. Yet malfunction can be caused by multiple reasons such as incorrect viscosity, insufficient or excessive quantity, water and particle contamination, faulty assembly, leakage, overload or electrical current. Lubrication is an important factor, but not only explanation.
Why is oil film important?
Lubricant helps to create films that distinguish surfaces in rolling contacts. If viscosity remains insufficient at working temperature, surface contact and wear can increase. Very high viscosity can create mixing loss and warming. The choice should be done through the actual operating temperature, speed and load of the bearing, not the rated ambient temperature.
Contamination and sealing
Solid particles can create notch and abrasion on rolling surfaces; can affect water viscosity and corrosion behavior. Lubricant change may not be the solution alone: gasket, breathability, washing procedure and grease gun cleaning should be examined. Pollution new lubricant or clear packaging is also source of contamination.
Less and more lubrication symptoms
Insufficient lubrication temperature can result in sound and surface damage. Over grease can grind the temperature by kneading in bearing cavity and stone from seal. The blocked line in the automatic system is less dose; the faulty calibration can create more doses. The added gram, period and purging behavior should be recorded.
Root cause analysis
When dismantling damaged bearing, the direction should be documented by protecting the load zone, color, wear marks and lubricant status. Installation tolerance, alignment and load are controlled with vibration, temperature and process history. The new bearing removes the symptom; the root cause should be systematically examined to eliminate.
Application control list
- Save working temperature, speed and load.
- Validate periodic with dosage amount.
- Check out the ways of gasket and contamination.
- Document the traces of the disassembled part without cleaning.
- Check out non-lubricating assembly, alignment and load causes.
Conclusion
Lubrication is one of the basic conditions of bearing life, but for accurate diagnosis, mechanical, environmental and application should be discussed together for welded reasons.
Manstechnic approach
Manstechnic combines lubricant proposal with point analysis and malfunction symptom, establishes an accurate maintenance approach.