There are eight major application areas for Ultrasound, two of them are friction and rotating machinery. This presentation examines, with numerous examples and case histories, just how easy it is to use ultrasound for on-condition lubrication and early stage bearing failure. The presentation then goes on to demonstrate the seamless integration approach where bearing condition assessment is a free by-product of an on-condition lubrication program.

Ultrasound detects sound generated beyond human hearing. Friction generates noise in this region. Early stage bearing defects are known to generate sound and vibration energy from the audible range up to several 100s of kilohertz. Combining this knowledge suggests that measuring the acoustic behaviour of a bearing in these higher, ultrasonic, frequencies provides valuable insight into the frictional state of a bearing and also into the presence of any high frequency impacts which for decades have been known to be a strong indicator of early failure.

In the last three decades, ultrasound has developed from a listen-only technology into a listen, measure and analyse technology. Now we can not only hear that a bearing has high friction but we can also listen as we apply lubrication to that bearing, trend that data to prove that the lubrication was beneficial and analyse that data to identify defects.