The Situation
A thickener slew bearing began showing fluctuating, climbing acoustic emission counts.
Fault Detection
Top bearing Acoustic Emission event counts had been fluctuating and increasing, reaching highs of 460,000 counts — a pattern consistent with a lubrication issue building over time on a critical plant asset.
Problem Averted
The bearing was inspected and manually greased. The client confirmed the fix worked. The before-and-after trend graph showed Acoustic Emission levels drop sharply straight after greasing.