Understanding the Generation of Grease Noise in Ball Bearings Helps to Develop Low Noise Greases
Among the characteristics that are often required of rolling bearing greases is low noise. Several systems for measuring grease noise in rolling bearings are available on the market, e.g., MoreQuiet, BeQuiet+, FAG-MGG11 and anderometer. All noise measurement technologies used are based on standards such as "running noise in rolling bearings," however, the individual tests vary considerably in how they are evaluated and regarding the results classes obtained. This article presents a direct comparison of measurement techniques, highlighting the differences between the evaluation methods used by means of an FFT analysis. Combined with an understanding of noise generation, the measurement results can be used to gather further information, including the detection of individual particles and their behavior when being rolled over in the bearing.