How will advances in coatings, such as diamond-like carbon coatings, affect bearing performance?
We’re looking for bearings that are going to last better under poor lubrication conditions, and under conditions where you’ve got a lot of contaminant, be it solid or liquid. These diamond-like coatings are very, very hard. Because they are hard, we don’t see the same surface deterioration that we might with a conventional steel bearing. It’s a continuation of a trend to try to get more hardness into the surfaces of the bearings. Q: What are the primary factors that shorten bearing life? A: Many customers have come to us and asked us to participate in a failure analysis. And what we see is that probably the two most important causes of bearing failure are poor lubrication conditions and mishandling. The former may mean selecting the wrong lubricant, not maintaining it properly, not changing it, not changing the filter, or letting water get into the lubricant. And mishandling could mean just leaving a bearing open on the bench overnight before you install it. Then, because of high humid
