Mechanical Condition Monitoring
Unlock the Hidden Language of Your Bearings with Ultrasound
Ultrasound condition monitoring gives you early, actionable insights into the health of your rolling element bearings—long before vibration or temperature changes reveal problems.
Be proactive, not reactive. Hear More today.
Ultrasound Detects Problems Before they Escalate
Ultrasound gives you real-time, condition-based insights into the health of rolling element bearings—even at low speeds or in noisy environments.
With ultrasound, you can:
- Detect friction, impacting, and lubrication issues early
- Prevent both over- and under-lubrication
- Reduce reliance on reactive maintenance
- Extend bearing and asset life
- Save time and money with targeted interventions
Count on Ultrasound for trusted advice you can act on.
Bearings Fail Silently – And Then it’s Too Late
Rolling element bearings are critical components in rotating machinery, yet they’re one of the most common points of failure. Traditional monitoring methods like vibration and temperature often detect issues only after damage has already occurred. This leads to:
Downtime
Costly repairs
Safety risks
Reduced asset life
SDT Helps you Make Sense of the Sound
With over 50 years of experience, SDT helps maintenance and reliability teams move from guesswork to guided decision-making. Whether you’re just getting started or scaling plant-wide, our team is here to support every step of your journey.
We help you select the right ultrasound solutions for your assets, train your team in real-world best practices, and integrate ultrasound into your existing reliability program. Beyond technology, we guide you in interpreting data and taking confident, informed action. SDT does more than just sell instruments—we help you build a smarter, more strategic reliability program.
Our Solutions for Mechanical Condition Monitoring
Our route-based data collection solutions combine airborne and contact ultrasound sensors with precision vibration analysis into versatile, multi-purpose reliability data collectors. Fully integrated with the world's most powerful predictive maintenance software, these intuitive tools streamline asset inspections, simplify workflows, and deliver superior reliability outcomes.
Learn MoreOur ultrasound and vibration permanent monitoring solutions offer industry-leading sensitivity for the earliest possible fault detection. Engineered for durability and ease-of-use, these solutions provide remote, automated diagnostics—reducing maintenance costs and delivering a comprehensive, facility-wide view of asset health.
Learn MoreImaging technologies enhance visibility into hidden problems—revealing heat, sound, and motion that the eye can’t see. From thermal and acoustic imaging to motion amplification, reliability teams can use these vision enhancing technologies to detect failures. Our imaging solutions are a powerful way to see more, understand faster, and act with confidence.
Learn MoreUltrasound-guided lubrication empowers maintenance teams to grease bearings with precision by monitoring friction in real time during greasing tasks. By comparing live decibel readings to historical baseline data, technicians can identify when lubrication is truly needed, and when enough has been applied; preventing both under- and over-lubrication.
Learn MoreMonitoring Bearings with Ultrasound
01
Plan
Pick the right ultrasound device and sensor type. Contact sensors work best. Identify critical bearings and access points. Review safety protocols before getting started.
02
Inspect
Capture decibel readings and sound samples under consistent load and speed conditions. Use slow speed mode for very low RPM bearings.
03
Analyze
Listen for changes in sound quality: crackling, popping, or grinding. Compare dB levels to historical data or baseline recordings to detect wear or lack of lubrication.
04
Act
Report abnormal readings and schedule corrective maintenance. Lubricate, realign, or replace as needed. Track trends to avoid unplanned downtime.
Get Started in Three Simple Steps
Bearing Condition Monitoring Frequently Asked Questions
Ultrasound sensors detect high-frequency sound waves (typically 20–100 kHz) produced by friction and impact inside bearings. These signals are converted into audible sounds and digital readings, helping identify faults that are otherwise inaudible to the human ear.
Because friction and impacting—the earliest signs of bearing failure—produce high-frequency sound waves long before vibration levels are noticeable, or heat builds up. Ultrasound identifies these microscopic changes in friction and impacting first allowing reliability teams to identify defects in their earliest possible stage.
Ultrasound systems operate in a narrow, focused band: typically around 38–40 kHz for bearing applications. This range filters out ambient plant noise and hones in on the sounds generated by mechanical friction and impact. The sensors use narrow-band filters to eliminate parasitic or environmental noise, making them ideal for loud environments where other technologies struggle to get clean signals.
Ultrasound detects issues in the incipient stage—sometimes months before vibration analysis picks them up. This gives maintenance teams time to schedule repairs before any secondary damage occurs.
Ultrasound can identify lack of lubrication, over-lubrication, early-stage wear, pitting, misalignment, impacting, and characteristic fault frequencies such as BPFO (Ball Pass Frequency Outer), BPFI (Ball Pass Frequency Inner), and BSF (Ball Spin Frequency). It can also help detect unbalance conditions—all long before these issues escalate into catastrophic failures.
By listening in real-time during greasing, ultrasound alerts you to the exact moment friction decreases. This ensures you lubricate just enough, preventing overgreasing or undergreasing.
It’s remarkably easy. Technicians can be trained to recognize faults by sound and signal patterns in a few hours. With software and trending, even new users can capture expert-level data.
Yes. Ultrasound data is quantitative. You can track decibel levels, RMS values, and crest factors to visualize bearing health deterioration and predict failure timelines.
Yes. Ultrasound excels where vibration often struggles, making it ideal for slow-speed bearings. Even at very low RPMs, friction, impacting, and lubrication issues generate high-frequency signals that ultrasound can easily detect—giving you critical insights that vibration might miss.
Ultrasound is incredibly versatile. In addition to bearing monitoring, it can detect air and gas leaks, inspect electrical systems for arcing, tracking, and corona, perform tightness testing, and monitor valve and steam trap performance. Ultrasound also covers gaps where traditional vibration struggles, such as detecting electrical arcing, pump cavitation, slow-speed bearing faults, misaligned couplings, and VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) motor issues.