System and method for conditioned-based monitoring of a bearing assembly

A system for monitoring the condition of a roller bearing assembly subject to increasing vibrational movement at characteristic frequencies indicative of bearing assembly faults, the system comprising:

• (a) a sensor for detecting vibrational movement of the roller bearing assembly and capable of generating signals indicative of the amplitude and frequency of the vibrational movement of the roller being assembly comprising one or more roller bearing components;
• (b) a processor, in communication with the sensor, receiving the signals generated by the sensor and generating spectral data representative of the vibrational movement of the roller bearing assembly with respect to the amplitude and frequency of the roller bearing vibrational movement;
• (c) a database, in communication with the processor, comprising data representative of at least one predetermined amplitude threshold for a potential roller bearing fault associated with at least one predetermined frequency, wherein said amplitude threshold and said predetermined frequency for the potential roller bearing fault is obtained from an analysis of spectral data representative of the vibrational movement of a population of like bearing assemblies, and wherein said spectral data comprise peaks having an amplitude and frequency, and said processor identifies the peaks associated with said at least one predetermined frequency for the roller bearing fault, and counts the number of peaks having an amplitude exceeding said amplitude threshold;
• and,
• (d) said processor, assigning a score indicative of the number of peaks counted exceeding the amplitude threshold for evaluating the condition of the bearing and generating a signal responsive to the assigned score and to the number of peaks counted having an amplitude exceeding the amplitude threshold and the signal is indicative of the condition of the bearing assembly.