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DoctorKnow Application Paper

Title: Failed Bearing Evaluation Source/Author: Alan K. Pride Product: General Technology: Vibration FAILED BEARING EVALUATION Alan K. Pride

Preliminary Steps Following bearing removal, the bearing should be engraved with a unique identifying serial number on the same side of both the inner and outer ring. This serial number should be recorded in the failed beating logbook and contain the following information: 1. Time and date of beating removal. 2. Reason for removal i.e., vibration, temperature, airborne noise, seized, other maintenance, etc. 3. Equipment removed from including position. 4. Bearing manufacturer, size, lot number, date of installation. 5. Vibration level at time of removal. An inspection of the general condition of the bearing should be performed and noted on the bearing evaluation sheet. This general evaluation should consist of the following: 1. Ability to rotate the bearing by hand. 2. Condition of external surfaces such as rings, seals, shields, etc. 3. Condition of cage and lubricant, if possible without disassembly. 4. If seals or shields are present, they can be removed by using a screwdriver of the proper size to pry them away from the inner ring and then removed. 5. Using a clean tongue depressor remove a grease sample from as close to the bearing races as possible and place in a small plastic bag. 6. The grease sample should be worked to a thin film and held up to a bright light and the presence of dirt, water, or other contaminates noted and recorded on the evaluation sheet. 7. The bearing can now be cleaned using a solvent or diesel fuel and a parts cleaning brush. NOTE: Observe applicable safety precautions when handling solvents. 8. Following cleaning the bearing should rotate freely by hand. Any discrepancies should be noted on the evaluation sheet. 9. Spray the bearing with CRC or similar substance to prevent corrosion from occurring if the bearing is not to be analyzed at this tune.

DISASSEMBLY Angular Contact/Other Snap Together Bearings Disassembly of beatings other than deep groove ball bearings cannot be accomplished without minor damage to the beating components. However, this damage, nicks in the balls or fresh smears in the race, are readily discernible from the damage which occurred during operation and should be noted on the evaluation sheet. To disassemble these type of bearings perform the following: 1. Place the bearing face (thin side) down inside a clean box on other suitable container in order to prevent the balls/rollers from rolling away. 2. Use a small piece of wood as a spacer to support the outer ring of the bearing at sufficient height to allow the cage and balls to clear the outer ring. Then strike the inner ring with a mallet at the high point; the bearing should separate into individual components. Disassembly of Deep Groove Bearings In order to disassemble a deep groove or Conrad beating the cage must be first removed, the difficulty of this task is dependent on the type of cage present. A snap in phenolic cage can be removed by using a screw driver or punch and hammer, and a two piece phenolic cage can be disassembled using the appropriate size drift to drive out the pins which hold the cage together. However, disassembly of the two piece riveted metal cage can be difficult and is made much easier if a drill press is utilized during the following procedure: 1. Place an indentation in the center of each rivet using a center punch and hammer. 2. Clamp the bearing to the drill press and drill the rivets with a twist drill bit of the same diameter as the rivet. Only the head of each rivet needs to be removed and not the entire rivet. 3. Remove the cage halves and clean the bearing and cage assembly with a brush and solvent to remove metal slivers. 4. Slide all of the balls to one side of the bearing and clamp bearing in a vise on the side opposite from the balls. Note: A face shield should be utilized during the next step as there is a chance the bearing may fracture. 5. Slowly tighten vise until the rings are distorted enough to allow the inner ring to move past the last ball. This will require a few mils of deflection and be accompanied by a snapping sound. 6. Release the tension on the vise and place the bearing components in a clean container. Bearing Surfaces The bearing consists of inner ( raceways, ball and cage raceways, shoulders) and outer ( outside and inside diameters, faces/backs) surfaces. All of these surfaces must be carefully examined if an accurate assessment of cause of failure is to be determined. In most cases, a good light and a 10X magnifying glass are all that is required to make a diagnosis. However, if failure rates seem excessive and a failure pattern emerges, detailed analysis by a metallurgist may be warranted.

A detailed examination by an independent laboratory will cost several thousand dollars per bearing. BEARING ANALYSIS EXTERNAL SURFACES This section on external surfaces describes the checks of the physical condition of the bearing and machine interfaces where the root cause of the bearing failure is often determined. The information obtained from the examination of the points of contact between the bearing and the machine should be correlated with conditions found on the rollers and raceways to obtain the most probable cause of bearing failure. A review of beatings removed for cause performed by the U.S. Navy indicated that over one-half of bearing failures were the result of contamination and improper installation. Contamination problems are normally manifested on the internal surfaces while indicators of installation problems are evident on internal and external surfaces. Degradations and wear on external surfaces can be evaluated by observing the type and patterns of simple and fretting corrosion, scoring marks, and color of components. CORROSION Simple Corrosion Corrosion of bearing surfaces is very common and consists of simple corrosion or rust and fretting corrosion which is a mechanical process. Simple corrosion is usually the result of water or moisture coming into contact with an unprotected surface of the bearing and simply rusting the steel. This type of corrosion is usually brown in color and takes place on the faces and shoulders where there is no contact between the balls, races, shaft, or housing. In some cases, the lubricant, water or other contaminates will interact with the lubricant and form acids which result in dark brown and/or black stains on the balls and races. This type of corrosion can take the form of very fine crack like lines in equipment which has not been in operation for some time. In advanced states, severe pitting can take place which will form points for surface initiated spalls to occur. In general, simple corrosion is randomly scattered over the surface with no apparent pattern and not associated with wear. Fretting Corrosion Fretting corrosion is the result of small amounts of relative motion between the external surfaces of the bearing, the shaft, housing, and/or bearing outer caps. This relative motion, which can be vibratory, causes adhesive wear to take place due to metal-to-metal contact at high points between the two surfaces. The amount of fretting is a function of fit-up and load and thus is an excellent indicator to the cause of bearing failure. Severe fretting can create weak spots in the bearing which will result in cracking and eventual spalling of the bearing. In addition, heavy fretting on the guide or floating bearing outer ring may cause the bearing to lock-up in the housing which will cause the bearing to become overloaded and result in failure. Unlike simple corrosion, fretting corrosion will often have a pattern associated with

misalignment, improper clearances, and excessive loading. Therefore, careful mapping of the fretting patterns will greatly assist the analyst in accurately diagnosing beating failures. The following photographs are examples of how classical fretting patterns can be utilized to determine the root cause of the bearing failure: NOTE: The photographs mentioned in this paper will be presented as a slide show during the presentation. Unfortunately due to the need for high photographic quality reproduction in the format of this paper is impossible. 1. The photograph shows normal fretting of the outer ring of a properly mounted thrust beating from a vertical pump/motor. In vertical applications where no parasitic or radial forces exist the fretting will be uniformly distributed near the center, usually offset by the contact angle of the bearing in the same plane as the wear track created by the ball on the outer race. Since the rings are flexible and the bearing generates pressures in excess of 300,000 PSI the ring flexes in response to the resulting pressure wave creating the relative motion between the bearing and the housing which causes the adhesive wear. Studies by the U. S. Navy have indicated that this type of fretting can occur after as little as 100 hours of operation. 2. A radially loaded bearing, as found in a horizontal machine, will also show the same fretting slightly offset from the center but will be heavy only in the load zone and tapper off to little or no fretting in the upper half of the bearing on the outer ring. In both cases the inner ring of the bearing will show signs of fretting the entire 360. 3. Excessive fretting can occur when any of the following conditions exist: a. Heavy loads and severe vibration. b. Improper shaft geometry. c. Housing imperfections. 4. The following photograph shows the result of a combination of heavy load and vibration in a horizontal machine. 5. In this example the fretting occurs at opposite sides of the inner and outer rings which indicates a very high thrust load. If the wear track angle were measured it would probably indicate a higher than designed contact angle. 6. These two photographs are classical examples of poor housing and bearing fitups where the bearing was not fully supported by the housing which resulted in excessive flexing of the outer ring in localized areas. This has the effect of increasing the amount of stress on the bearing and shortening bearing life. 7. Bearing misalignment is a leading cause of premature bearing failure and can easily be avoided by properly installing the bearing. These photographs show a skewed fretting pattern on the outer ring but normal light fretting in the center of the inner ring bore. In order to avoid this type of problem, squareness of the shaft shoulder should be confirmed as well as ensuring the bearing is positioned snugly against the shoulder during installation. 8. Tapered housings produce fretting on the portion of the bearing in contact with the housing and not in the area of no contact. Again, the inner ring shows no sign of high thrust loads. 9. A fluted housing where the outer ring is supported on the high points of the

housing which does not provide sufficient resistance to rotation to prevent the outer ring from chattering in the housing. In this particular case, the bearing could have been noisy in service and removed prematurely.

SCORING There are two types of scoring, axial and circumferential, both of which are usually indicative of poor bearing fitup. While axial scoring can be created during bearing removal a determination of the relative age of the marks can normally be made and a conclusion reached as to whether or not there was excessive interference between the bearing and either the shaft or the housing. Furthermore, insufficient heating of the bearing, hard particle contamination or a lobed shaft can cause scoring of the inner ring and damage to the shaft. Excessive interference will expand the inner ring, taking up all the internal clearance and overloading the bearing. Circumferential scoring is caused by the shaft being undersized or the housing being oversized and is indicative of the bearing turning on the shaft or in the housing. In some cases excessive load may cause the bearing to spin or creep relative to the machine mounting surface and/or fastening devices. In addition, damage to the bearing face can result due to rubbing of the bearing and the shaft shoulder and lock nut/washer. In both cases this may result in sufficient damage to cause cracks and spalls to occur in the bearing. Excessive scoring of either type will result in premature bearing failure and can be avoided by carefully measuring all fitup dimensions and installing the bearing in accordance with the vendors recommendations. COLOR The color of the bearing, overall and in specific locations, provides information on the operating environment especially temperature. As the operating temperature increases the beating components will change from a bright shiny or steel gray color to a straw, reddish brown, blue and finally black with increase in operating temperature. As a result of operating at excessive temperature the steel hardness is reduced and operating life significantly shortened. The following photograph depicts the change in harness and color caused by increases in temperature. The specimens are cut sections of bearing steel which have been heated to the indicated temperature and their Rockwell C hardness checked. A determination should be made as to the cause of the overheated bearing components. For example, the bearing could be the cause of the excessive heat generation due to a reduction of internal clearance by a tight fitup or by failure of the lubricant. In addition, an external source of heat could be conducted to the bearing which would cause premature failure. Thus, the bearing and surrounding components should be examined for signs of thermal distress. INTERNAL SURFACES The internal surfaces consist of the rolling elements, raceways, internal shoulders or lands, and the cage or retainer. In normal operation all of the load should be carried by the rolling

elements and the raceways and no signs of excessive abrasive wear should be apparent on the cage or the shoulders. For phenolic or other non-metal cages, a minor amount of rubbing on the shoulder is acceptable since the cage uses one of the shoulders as a guide. Steel cages ride on the rolling elements and should never come into contact with the inner or outer ring.

CAGE The color and presence of any signs of abrasive wear should be noted. The color of the cage, steel or phenolic, will darken with increases in temperature. As previously mentioned, with the exception of a phenolic cage which uses a land as a guide there should be no signs of abrasive wear or cracks in the cage. The cage pockets will often show signs of scoring due to the fact sliding and not rolling takes place between the cage and the rolling elements. In the ideal situation, the condition of each cage pocket will show uniform wear patterns and any pocket to pocket deviation should be noted and the cause determined. The most common cause of excessive scoring of the pockets is hard particle contamination. RACEWAYS The raceways are the portions of the inner and outer rings between the lands where the rolling elements support the load. The area of contact is referred to as the ball path and is the portion of the bearing which sees the cyclic stress which limits bearing life. As previously mentioned, pressures in this region can exceed 300,000 PSI. This high pressure can cause bearing failure through the following two mechanisms: 1. Surface initiated spalling 2. Fatigue spalling Surface initiated spalls are caused by hard or soft particle denting and/or electrical pitting of the raceways. These indentations create stress rises which cause the metal to fracture and spallout. Soft particle dents can be caused by thread, tobacco, cage material, and lubricant impurities. Hard particle denting can be caused by the metal oxide particles formed do to simple and fretting corrosion. Electrical pits are often the result of improperly grounding arc welders as well as the presence of stray currents in the rotating assembly of electrical motors. Fatigue spalls occur when the beating has work hardened the raceway, resulting in embrittlement of the material, and finally loss of material. The observable difference between the two types of spalls are 1) the surface initiated spall has an arrowhead shape often with a point at the tip of the arrow and 2) a fatigue or subsurface initiated spall is usually oval and has steeper sides than a surface initiated spall. Conclusion A macroscopic examination of failed beatings can be used to determine the true or root cause of beating failures, identify problems with lubrication, bearing design, installation and operation, and evaluate the accuracy of the vibration analysis program.

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