Rib-Roller Wear in Tapered Rolling Element Bearings: Analysis and Development of Test Rig for Condition Monitoring

Abstract

Rolling Element Bearings (REBs) are present in virtually all machines with moving or rotating parts, and are vital for proper performance and safe operation. Condition Monitoring (CM) of bearings often receive particular interest, as this component group rarely reach design lifetime and hence is responsible for unplanned machine downtime. Unplanned maintenance can represent a large cost which motivates development of improved CM methods for implementation of advanced maintenance regimes. Based on observations of a used bearing from an offshore drilling machine, wear on roller ends in the rib-roller contact area was identified as an area of interest for future research. A test rig for creating and observing accelerated roller end damage is developed, intended for use with vibration and Acoustic Emission (AE) sensors. In addition to normal continuous rotation of the bearing, the test rig is also designed with performing oscillation motion tests in mind. This mode of operation is of interest to manufacturers and end users of cranes and winches with heave compensation. Plans and challenges for future work are also discussed, in conjunction with the experimental setup.