2020 Volume 65 Issue 9 Pages 555-562
In the field of tribology, a measuring technique that continuously monitors the state of the frictional parts of major machine elements and enables highly sensitive and accurate diagnosis and evaluation becomes one of the key technologies for realizing IoT and smart machine systems. In order to perform accurate maintenance at the optimal timing, a measuring technique that can not only detect the abnormal state of the frictional part early but also identify the cause and location of the abnormality is required. Furthermore, it is necessary to accurately diagnose and evaluate the steady progress of wear and the state of surface damage before abnormalities occur. In this commentary article, in order to utilize an acoustic emission (AE) technique for the damage evaluation of rolling bearings, trends in the AE research, features and evaluation methods in the AE technique are widely reviewed. In addition, the advantages and future prospects in the AE technique application are summarized with introducing some research cases on rolling bearings.
