Finally tried that ultrasonic bearing tester my old foreman always talked about, and it actually found a bad one we missed.

We were chasing a hum on a 20-year-old gearless unit in a downtown office building. Did all the standard checks, even swapped the motor brushes. Nothing. I remembered this old timer I worked with years ago swore by this little handheld ultrasonic device he bought for about $400. Always thought it was a gimmick. Borrowed one from a buddy at another company last Thursday. Pointed it at the motor bearings and one of them was screaming compared to the others. Pulled it, and sure enough, the inner race was starting to spall. Has anyone else had a tool they wrote off that ended up saving a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire9997d ago

That ultrasonic tester is a great tool, but it's more for finding early stage bearing issues. A true screaming bearing from spalling is usually pretty loud and you can often hear it with a mechanic's stethoscope too. The ultrasound just lets you catch problems way before they get that bad.

emmajackson7d ago

My old shop had a vibration pen that looked like a toy. We called it the magic wand until it found a bad fan bearing on a chiller @claire999 would have heard from across the room. Boss bought three more after that.