04/02/2026
How SAFE is your Bearings even after Lubrication and Protection?
Bearings are always safe if Shielded on both sides to ensure the contamination does not enter the bearing raceways to degrade the grease properties resulting corrosion, abrasive wear and metal to metal contact between the rolling elements , raceways and cage pockets.
Shielded bearings looks normal from outside, But when i conduct failure analysis of a shielded bearings, I see clearly the hidden corrosion present in CAGE POCKETS degrades the grease properties allowing metal to metal contact, abrasive wear and restricting free movement of rolling elements in cage pockets leading to bearing failure.
What looks normal outside may not be the same inside the raceways unless a detailed analysis is done to find the correct reason why the bearings behavior is abnormal.
Color of the grease is a FIRST indicator to tell what went wrong inside the bearing if viewed and judged correctly much before individual component inspection.