Failure of Rolling-Element Bearings and Their Prevention

To adequately analyze failure modes of rolling-element bearings (REBs), it is necessary to briefly review one of he main disciplines of machine design : the description of components. This discipline describes in details, at the component level, how the component is conceived, what its main properties are, and for which function and uses it is designed. The first section of this article is therefore dedicated to the fields of mechanical engineering and machine design. This article also intends to give a non-exhaustive view of the preventive side of the failure analysis of REBs and some of the recent developments in terms of materials and surface engineering.