Rib-Roller Wear in Tapered Rolling Element Bearings: Analysis and Development of Test Rig for Condition Monitoring

Rolling Element Bearings (REBs) are present in virtually all machines with moving or rotating parts, and are vital for proper performance and safe operation. Condition Monitoring (CM) of bearings often receive particular interest, as this component group rarely reach design lifetime and hence is responsible for unplanned machine downtime. Unplanned maintenance can represent a large cost which motivates development of improved CM methods for implementation of advanced maintenance regimes. Based on observations of a used bearing from an offshore drilling machine, wear on roller ends in the rib-roller contact area was identified as an area of interest for future research. A test rig for creati…