Technology

Avoiding bearing failure or avoiding

reoccurrence may well be worth more than
the weight of the bearing in gold.

Golden
opportunities
Every year more than ten billion rolling bearings are produced
in the world. Most of them outlive
the equipment they are fitted to
(approximately 90 %). Some bearings are replaced before they fail
(9.5 %). But those bearings that do
fail (0.5 %) may have disastrous
consequences. When a bearing fails
in a main production line of a large
factory or in a critical application,
(production) losses can amount to
millions of euros. Sometimes the
underlying cause can be simple.
Take, for example, a goods train
derailment that happened several
years ago. A bearing in an axlebox
overheated (fig. 1), the axle collapsed and eight wagons went up
in the air, destroying tracks and
catenaries. Traffic was disrupted
for hours. Total cost of the damage
ran to a few million euros. Luckily,

28

Fig. 1:
Application: Y-25 axlebox.

nobody was hurt. The root cause

of the problem? It was difficult to
determine as almost everything
was destroyed, but eventually it
was found that during a maintenance overhaul a very simple distance ring was fitted that had too
small a width. The bearings could
shift on the axle and thus developed heat; finally, the shaft (and
bearings) collapsed.

Root cause analysis

Rolling bearings are at the heart

of most machines and vehicles.
But when the bearing goes, the
machine or vehicle stops. The reason for this is often that something
has happened to the equipment
that results in improper functioning of the bearing. The bearing is
mostly the victim. It is therefore
important to find the root cause to

prevent it from happening again.

The replacement of the bearing
alone would not solve the problem.
In service, over a period of time,
changes in appearance occur to
most bearings. These changes,
called patterns, can provide considerable information about the
operating conditions and what happened during the bearing life.
To be able to carry out a proper
inspection of a damaged bearing,
the equipment must be stopped
in time. Indeed, once a bearing is
damaged, it will gradually deteriorate further until it becomes
unserviceable and all evidence of
failure mechanisms may well be
destroyed. Fig. 2 shows an example.
Foreign particles (contaminants)
got into the bearing and were overrolled. This resulted in an indentation (contaminant pressed into the
raceway), as well as in a raised rim
around the dent that looked somewhat like a crater. The geometry of
the raceway was locally changed
and as a result that area no longer
had a good oil film to separate the
contact surfaces. The result was
material fatigue, initiated at the
surface, with crack formation and
eventually spalling behind the
damaged area (fig. 2a). With continued running the spalling progressed (figs. 2b and 2c). At a later
stage the damaged area became

Bearing
arrangement

Axlebox after
derailment
(cut through)

evolution.skf.com #3 2011

11EVO3_entdamage_cls_3917.indd 28

2011-06-21 12:33:22

so large that the initiation point,

the dent, disappeared (fig. 2d) and
inspection of the damaged bearing
would no longer reveal the root
cause, i.e., contaminants that came
into the bearing due to possible
sealing problems.
Today, there is a

standing that:

common under-

 cause for failure results in cerA

tain characteristics.
A certain failure mechanism
results in a certain failure mode
(pattern).
From the damage observed, one
can possibly determine the root
cause of failure.
Much work has been done by ISO
todefine the different failure modes
and to classify them (fig. 3). This has
resulted in ISO 15243, published
in 2004. When looking at bearing
failures, in total six main failure
modes can be observed, which can
be further classified into a number
of sub modes.
The classification is based on
three major factors:
 amage and changes that hapd
pened during service (as soon as
a bearing has left the factory)
characteristic forms of change
inappearance that can be attributed to particular causes
classified by visible features
(including enlargement tools,
such as microscopes).
Lets have a look at the different
modes:

Material fatigue

Subsurface initiated fatigue is dete-

rioration of the material. It is caused

by cyclic stresses just underneath
the raceway surface and ultimately
results in decay of the material.
Cracks are initiated and propagate
underneath the surface, and when

they come to the surface, spalling

occurs (fig. 4).
Surface initiated fatigue results
from inadequate lubrication conditions. The role of the lubricant is to
build up an oil film that separates
the moving parts. Under poor lubrication conditions, for example due
to contamination or wrong viscosity, metal-to-metal contact occurs.
The surface asperities (peaks)
shear over each other and result in
shear stresses at the surface. Due
to material fatigue, small cracks
and subsequently micro-spalling
will occur. Initially, there might be
a shiny surface, because the surface roughness is reduced, but the
process continues and the surface
becomes dull and breaks up more
and more (fig. 5).

Fig. 2: Progress of damage.

Fig. 3: ISO classification of bearing damage

and failure modes

Main mode

Sub mode

Fatigue

Subsurface initiated fatigue

Surface initiated fatigue

Wear

Abrasive wear
Adhesive wear

Corrosion

Moisture corrosion
Frictional corrosion

Wear

Wear is a typical aspect that happens in the contact zones of moving

bodies. Wear most often is unavoidable. However, circumstances
may cause wear to occur at an early
stage of bearing operation. Two
variants of wear can occur. These
are abrasive and adhesive wear.
They occur due to differences
in speed of the working contact
surfaces. The cause of the speed
differences can be kinematic slip,
acceleration and/or deceleration.
Abrasive wear is due to abrasive

particles in the lubricant. These

can be contaminant particles coming from the outside or inside for
example, wear particles from gears.
The abrasive particles wear out the
surfaces of the raceways (fig. 6) and
rolling elements. This normally
results in dull surfaces. However,
if the abrasive particles are very
fine and hard, such as cement dust,
a polishing effect might occur and
mirror-like surfaces appear. Often,
inadequate (or absence of) sealing
arrangements result in

-Fretting corrosion
-False brinelling
Electrical erosion

Excessive voltage
Current leakage

Plastic deformation

29

Overload
Indentation from debris
Indentation from handling

Fracture and cracking

Forced fracture
Fatigue fracture
Thermal cracking

contaminants entering the bearing

cavity. A lubricant analysis might
reveal the origin of the contamination, which can help in finding the
solution for the problem.
Adhesive wear occurs mainly in contact surfaces subjected to light loads,
poor lubrication conditions and with
important speed differences, resulting in sliding of the rolling elements.
One example is the passage from a
rolling element from the unloaded
zone into the loaded zone (fig. 7).
The rolling element can lose speed
in the unloaded zone and accelerate
when returning into the loaded zone.
This can result in breakthrough of

#3 2011 evolution.skf.com

11EVO3_entdamage_cls_3917.indd 29

2011-06-21 12:33:26

Technology
30

the lubrication film, sliding, heat

development and possibly material
transfer from the rolling element to
the raceway or vice versa. In an early
stage the appearance is shiny surfaces, but quickly it turns into a dull
surface with (more or less) smeared
material.

Corrosion

Moisture corrosion can cause seri-

ous bearing damage. In contrast to

other damage processes, corrosion
can happen fast and penetrate deep
into the material. Corrosion occurs
in the presence of water, corrosive
liquids or moisture. Also high
humidity in the air and touching
raceways with fingers can lead to
this type of corrosion. Its therefore
important to have good protection.
Corrosion often happens during
standstills and is then visible by
corrosion marks at rolling element
distance (fig. 8). Deep-seated rust
leads to early bearing damage.
can be very
harmful. The root cause for its
occurrence is micro-movements
between two loaded surfaces.
Mostly, this frictional corrosion
occurs between the bearing outside diameter and housing and/
or between the bearing bore and
shaft. The micro-movements are
mainly caused by the cyclic loads
when rolling elements are passing
by. Inadequate fits, shaft bending
and/or imperfections in the contact
surfaces can be the cause and/or
accelerate the occurrence. Air can
come into the unprotected surfaces, and accelerate the progression of corrosion. The formed iron
oxide has a larger volume than pure
steel. This can develop material
growth and high stresses, even to
the bearing raceway and can lead to
premature subsurface fatigue. Fretting corrosion can easily lead to ring
cracking (fig. 9).

Fretting corrosion

False brinelling , also a frictional

corrosion, occurs in rolling element/raceway contact areas due

to micro movements and resilience of the elastic contact under
cyclic vibrations. Since it occurs
when the bearing is stationary
and loaded, the damage appears
at rolling element pitch. Depending on the intensity of the vibrations, the lubrication condition and
load, a combination of corrosion
and wear occurs, forming shallow depressions in the raceways.
Normally, the vibration results in
local removal of the (protective)
lubricant, metal-to-metal contact
and abrasive wear. The appearance is therefore usually dull, often
discoloured and sometimes reddish due to occurrence of moisture
corrosion as well. Occasionally
the depressions can be shiny, most
likely due to lubricant still present
and consequently no abrasive wear
occurred. False brinelling damage
results in spherical cavities for ball
bearings (fig. 10), lines for roller
bearings.

Electrical erosion

Any current that goes through a

bearing can be harmful.
Damage from excessive voltage can
happen when an electric current
passes through a bearing, i.e., proceeds from one ring to the other via
the rolling elements. At the contact
surfaces the process is similar to
electric arc welding (high current density over a small contact
surface). The material is heated
to temperatures ranging from
tempering to melting levels. This
leads to the appearance of discoloured areas, varying in size, where
the material has been tempered,
re-hardened or melted. Craters
(varying approximately from 0.1
mm to 0.5 mm) are formed where
the material has melted (fig. 11).

Bearing damage can

be classified according to six major
failure modes.

Damage from current leakage

results from stray electric currents
that pass through a bearing, often
caused by frequency variations.
The main visual damage is flutes,
also called washboard pattern (fig.
12). These flutes have the shape of
the contact ellipse in ball bearings
and contact lines in roller bearings.
The rolling elements are mostly
evenly discoloured. Compared to
the excessive voltage damage, here
the current passes via a larger area
and resultantly the current intensity is smaller and the damaging
temperature is lower. Therefore the
main visual damage is a tempering
effect, i.e., a softening of the steel.
However, looking at the damage
with high magnification shows that
mostly there are craters present, as
well, on micro scale.

Plastic deformation

Permanent deformation occurs

whenever the yield strength of the
material is exceeded.
Overload results from static or shock
loads and leads to plastic deformation. This can be recognized
by depressions at rolling element
distance. Often, wrong mounting
procedures are at the base of the
problem, i.e., applying the mounting
force to the wrong ring and thereby
producing a shock load over the rolling elements (fig. 13).
Indentation from debris results

from foreign particles (contaminants) that have gained entry into

the bearing and are rolled into the

evolution.skf.com #3 2011

11EVO3_entdamage_cls_3917.indd 30

2011-06-21 12:33:30

Material fatigue

Fig. 4: Misalignment in a
tapered roller bearing resulted
in a too-heavy load at the thin
section, leading to early subsurface initiated fatigue.

Wear

Fig. 5: Surface initiated fatigue

most often comes from a lubrication problem.

Fig. 6: Abrasive wear in a

spherical roller bearing. Abrasive contaminants have come
into the bearing cavity.

Fig. 7: Spherical roller bearing outer ring. Light loads and

speed differences lead to
adhesive wear in the entrance
area of the load zone.

Corrosion

Fig. 8: Corrosion due to ingress

of moisture. Corrosion marks
are to be found at rolling
element distance.

Fig. 9: Fretting corrosion

results from microscopic
sliding movements. Stresses
might lead to ring cracking.

31

Plastic deformation

Electrical erosion

Fig. 11: Excessive voltage

through a bearing results in
rather large craters.

Fig. 10: False brinelling, very

much advanced.

Fig. 12: Current leakage damage in the shape of the contact

ellipse, called fluting or washboard pattern. On micro scale
there are mostly small craters
present.

Fracture and cracking

Fig. 15: Excessive drive-up on
a tapered seat resulted in too
high a hoop stress and cracked
the ring.

Fig. 13: Plastic deformation

resulting from the wrong
mounting method.

Fig. 14: Dents are stress raisers. Stresses and fatigue lead
to early spalling. Spalling
starts at the far end of the
dent. For ball bearings the
spall mostly develops in a
V-shape.

Fig. 16: This rotating inner ring,

fitted with a loose fit, was
subjected to heavy axial load.
Due to creep, there was sliding
movement of the side face of
the bearing against the abutment shoulder on the shaft.
The friction generated a lot of
heat, resulting in smearing and
cracks in the ring.

#3 2011 evolution.skf.com

11EVO3_entdamage_cls_3917.indd 31

2011-06-21 12:33:35

Maintenance tips

Technology

By applying some basic

maintenance rules, bearing service life can often be
extended.
 espect the specifications:
R
A bearing is made to take a
certain load, rotate at a certain speed, etc.
D
 o not put too heavy (or too
low) a load on a bearing or

rotate it too quickly. There is

a large choice of bearings.
It is important to select the
one that fits the application.
Make sure the right tolerances and fits are applied.
W
 here applicable, make sure
alignment is within appropriate limits.
Cleanliness: A clean environment during the mounting

raceways by the rolling element.

The size and shape of the dents
depend on the nature of the particles. The raceway geometry at the
dent is destroyed and lubrication is
impaired. Stresses arise at the surface and fatigue leads to premature
spalling of the surface (fig. 14).
Indentation from handling can occur

32

when bearing surfaces are gouged

by hard, sharp objects. Also, bearings must always be handled with
care. Although made of highestquality steel, localized overloads,
e.g., from dropping a bearing, might
dent the surfaces and make the
bearing unserviceable.

Fracture and cracking

Fracture (or cracking) occurs when

the ultimate tensile strength of the
material is exceeded.
Forced fracture is caused by stress
concentration in excess of the material tensile strength by local overloading or by over-stressing. Two
common causes are:

r ough treatment (impact) when a

bearing is being mounted or dismounted. Hammer blows applied
to a hardened chisel directly
against the ring may cause the
formation of fine cracks with
the result that pieces of the ring
break off when the bearing is put
into service.

process provides a good

start for long bearing service
life.
Tools: Always use the appropriate tools during mounting
or dismounting. Inappropriate tools might lead to early
bearing damage.
Sealing: Make sure that the
right sealing solution has
been chosen and that it

works effectively.
Lubrication: Efficient
lubrication is of utmost
importance. Too little, too
much or inadequate
lubrication can result in
early bearing damage. Make
sure the right lubricant is
applied, at the right time and
in the right quantity.

e xcessive drive-up on a tapered

seat or sleeve. As a result of this,
the tensile stresses (hoop stresses) arising in the rings produce
cracks when the bearing is put
into operation (fig. 15).
Fatigue fracture starts when the
fatigue strength is exceeded
under bending. A crack is
initiated that will then propagate.
Finally, the whole ring or cage
cracks. Fatigue fracture can
occur when a tight fit has been
used, leading to high hoop
stresses. Then, the combined
Hertzian and hoop stresses can
lead to premature fatigue and
through cracking of the ring.
Thermal cracking can occur when

two surfaces slide heavily against

each other. The frictional heat that
is developed causes cracks, generally at right angles to the sliding
direction (fig. 16).

Conclusion

A large percentage of bearing

failures can be avoided. In-depth
root cause bearing damage analysis
might reveal the root cause, and
by taking the proper action reoccurrence of bearing failure can be
avoided.

summary
Understanding the root
causes of bearing failures
can not only have the effect
of providing reliable bearing operation, but also
can avoid costly downtime. While most bearings
perform extremely well
in their particular application, the remaining bearing
failures can have expensive consequences. Bearing
failure modes are defined
according to ISO classification. Armed with this
information, it is possible
to make sure that a bearing can perform flawlessly
in its particular role. The
ISO classification improves
communication, i.e., avoid
misunderstanding. Classifying the damage in the right
way helps to understand
what has happened, to
find the root cause and the
solution for the customers
problem.

By Walter Verhaert, Evolution technology

editor, Brussels, Belgium

evolution.skf.com #3 2011

11EVO3_entdamage_cls_3917.indd 32

2011-06-21 12:33:39