Nothing can said to be certain, except for death, taxes, and bearing failure.  If these certainties cannot be avoided, we can at least try to understand them.  While taxes and, most certainly, death are outside the scope of this blog, we do dive into and explore common failure modes of rolling bearings.  

Pitting, scoring, denting, brinnelling, scratching, smearing, fracturing.

Rolling bearings are amongst the most analyzed and scrutinized machine elements in the world.  In addition to design, development, and testing, failure analysis is important for optimizing the product and application.  Wikipedia defines failure analysis as process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability.  

You can find photos of bearing failure all over the internet, like here (https://www.bearing-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/flaking.jpg) and https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1874694299800054-gr56.jpg and https://www.plantengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/12/PLE1812_WEB_Bearings.jpg.

What’s better than black and white pictures of failed bearings from the 1930s?  Video!  Here are the 5 best videos for bearing failure analysis.

by ACOEM VibrAlign (1min 31s)

This quick hitter covers a lot of ground, in detail, and focuses on vibration caused by failures, a common way of monitoring the condition of the equipment.  The video features useful images of failed bearings and vibration spectrums. 

by SKF Group (1min 45s)

Chances are your plant and equipment trust SKF rolling bearings already, so can also trust videos on their YouTube channel.  This videos details the many services offered by SKF, and also introduces the concept of reconditioning bearings that show damage.

by HECOAllSystemsGo (15min 40s)

Electric motors (or e-machines) are among the most common machines in the world, powering everything from household fans to steel rolling mills.  This video from HECOAllSystemsGo, a leader in rotating equipment repairs, takes a TEDTalk format focusing on electric motor bearing failures that can be applied to every rolling bearing.

By UE Systems (1hr 4min 3s)

If you're going to do something, why not do it all the way?  This video's duration is over an hour that details bearing basics, lubrication, bearing frequencies important for vibration analysis.  Only then does it dive into common failures of rolling bearings, specifically focusing on UE Systems' core competency: vibration monitoring.