SPM Instrument AB (Sweden) has introduced the Bearing Checker, a handheld instrument for condition monitoring, lubricant monitoring, and troubleshooting rolling element bearings.
Bearing Checker uses the shock pulse method to look at rolling element bearings in service.
Bearing Checker (courtesy SPM)
As a bearing turns, the rolling elements impact the races in various ways, creating compression shock pulses. Those pulses carry a lot of information. The amplitude, for example, will get stronger when there is insufficient lubricant film strength, or when the races are spalled or otherwise damaged. And the amplitude is directly related to the rotational speed.
SPM offers that its shock pulse measurement system is superior to standard vibrational analysis because shock pulse characteristics -- acceleration, velocity, and displacement -- convey more information about the bearing's entire operating situation.
As bearing races, rolling elements, and lubricants change over time in service, the Bearing Checker is designed to monitor those changes and give an ongoing picture of the bearing's service life and also its suitability for the application.
Bearing Checker works by touching the its probe directly to the running bearing housing for several seconds. During that time, it gathers data about acceleration, velocity, displacement, and temperature. Using that information, for a given shaft size and speed, the unit references its internal database and then calculates the bearing's condition.
Because a broad range of data is collected, Bearing Checker is able to immediately diagnose the difference between a bearing which has mechanical wear and a bearing which is operating with the wrong lubricant or exhausted lubricant.
With attached headphones, it can also be used as an electronic stethoscope.
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