Maintworld Magazine 4/2023

PARTNER ARTICLE
Text: PETER BOON, Product Specialist, UE Systems Images: UE SYSTEMS
Bearing Lubrication 4.0:
Autonomous and Smart lubrication
assisted by ultrasound
It is estimated that 60-80% of bearing failures are related to lubrication. Bearing failures very
often lead to unplanned downtime, which often has a significant impact on production and related
equipment. This downtime is maby times very costly. Although the costs vary according to the
severity of the incident and the industry in question, they do add up to production costs.
Example of a lubrication monitoring dashboard - UE Insights Platform
from UESystems.
The most frequent cause of bearing
failure is directly linked to lubrication,
so this is a real probme. Its impact on
the reliability of industrial equipment is
well established! The facts show that, for
many years, the lubrication of bearings
has been treated more randomly than in
a methodical and controlled way.
Many technicians have resorted
to 'preventive' lubrication based on
time: lubricating at a fixed period
of time without any physical measurement
of the bearing in order to
determine whether or not lubricating
is required! Every X months, a grease
gun appears in front of the bearing
to be lubricated and the bearings are
lubricated in this way.
Manual lubrication, based solely on
the manufacturer's lubrication interval
data, gives rise to at least the following
two risks:
• The risk of under-lubrication
increases the mechanical constraints
of rotation and can be the cause of
failures leading to equipment breakdowns
and stoppages, as well as
costly corrective maintenance.
• The risk of over-lubrication, which
has been identified by a large number
of studies as the main cause of
premature bearing failure.
Principle of Ultrasound
technology applied in
lubrication :
Ultrasonic technology uses specially
designed sensors to detect and monitor the
level of friction in bearings.
In the case of lubrication, the ultrasonic
level detected by a sensor in contact
with the bearing is directly linked to the
friction level of the bearings. From this
point onwards, the maintenance engineer
responsible for lubricating bearings has
two choices:
• Manual lubrication, using a simple
hand-held tool to listen to the bearings
during the lubrication operation;
16 maintworld 4/2023