Most of us have all heard of Ford Q1 and ISO 9001. Some of us have heard of TS16949 and ISO14001. In quick summary these are all quality management systems (QMS.) The objective of these systems is to develop a method to check processes used in an operation to determine reliability, repeatability and to determine any possible improvements or shortcomings.
At this point you may be asking, “What does this have to do with bearing analysis?”
Picture 1: Vibration or Fluting?
Picture 2: Vibration or Fluting?
This task can’t be taken lightly. If the failure mode is ignored, the failure will occur again. This is an extremely difficult task. In many cases the obvious damage is secondary and masks the root cause. I have spent more than 15 years reviewing and performing bearing failure analysis, and to this day I still find unique failures that force me to go back to the books.