New Method Using Piezoelectric Jerk Sensor to Detect Roller Bearing Failure

Abstract

An acceleration sensor is usually used to examine for roller bearing damage. It is difficult, however, to detect abnormal vibration and examine for roller bearing damage when rotation speed is low. The final target of this study is to establish a bearing damage diagnosis system based on the piezoelectric jerk sensor we developed, which can be used for both low- and highspeed rotations. For this purpose, this paper aims to identify the features of an abnormal vibration detection signal at a low rotation speed, propose a new roller bearing damage diagnosis method that uses the features, and clarify the validity of the method. Experiments are conducted to analyze a scratch purposely made on the outer ring of a conical roller bearing that rotates at the low speeds of 10 or 40 rpm. The results verify the advantages of using the jerk sensor for the bearing damage diagnosis and the validity of the method proposed in this paper.