Bearing monitoring method and system
OwnerIain Kenton EPPSinventor
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Abstract
This invention relates to a bearing monitoring method and system suitable for the monitoring of faults in rolling element bearings. The method and system utilize an acceleration sensor that is sensitive to both acceleration and housing strain and which has the effect of amplifying acceleration events that coincide with areas of the housing strain signal that correspond to bearing ball-pass events. The housing strain signal due to ball-pass events can be used to synchronise or otherwise modify the sampling of acceleration signals, or to determine bearing performance characteristics.
Claims20
A method of monitoring the condition of a rolling element bearing via a sensor attached to a bearing or bearing housing, the method comprising:
- i. generating strain signals from an output of the sensor, the strain signals representing housing or bearing strain;
- ii. generating acceleration signals from an output of the sensor, the acceleration signals representing housing or bearing acceleration;
- iii. synchronizing the acceleration signals to rolling element pass events using the strain signals;
- and
- iv. generating one or more signals indicative of bearing condition based on the synchronized acceleration signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.