A Review of Recent Patents on Intelligent Bearings

Background: The large amount of data generated by intelligent bearings still needs to be processed manually, which results in low efficiency, untimely access to status and fault diagnosis information, and a lack of the best maintenance period for machinery and equipment. Objective: By analyzing the research achievements and patents on intelligent bearings, a summary of the development trend provides a reference for the development of intelligent bearings. Methods: This paper introduces the key technologies associated with intelligent bearings and reviews various representative patents relating to intelligent bearings. The advantages and disadvantages of these patents are also analyzed. Results: At present, the development of intelligent bearing technology relies primarily on the sensor bearing. Most intelligent bearing patents have utilized the bearing gap to best arrange monitoring devices, and in some cases, the bearing structure has been changed to obtain the best arrangement. These intelligent bearings can achieve a degree of self-monitoring. For the integration of detection data processing and big data, research on the self-adaptation aspect of bearing is the initial step. Conclusion: Adapting to the host operation requirements is the direction of the development of intelligent bearings, and this requires intelligent bearings to involve self-awareness, self-decision, selfdiagnosis, and self-adaptation functions. In the future, these functions should be realized from the perspectives of systematization, diversification of monitoring information, and intelligent data analysis.