Review of Recent Patents on Smart Bearing

Background: Smart bearing is based on the traditional bearing, which is integrated by sensing devices and control devices, formating a unique bearing structure unit. It uses information processing, automatic control, and other technologies to achieve real-time online monitoring of bearing operating conditions, fault detection, and state control. Compared with ordinary bearings, smart bearings have the characteristics of self-awareness, self-decision, and self-regulation. By analyzing the composition of various types of smart bearings and their working principles, it is beneficial to prospect the future development direction of bearings. Objective: We analyze and organize the patents on smart bearings in recent years, summarize the problems encountered in the development of smart bearings, and propose the development direction of smart bearings in the future to provide a reference for future scientific research. Methods: This paper reviews the patents related to smart bearings and analyzes the composition and structure of smart bearings. The main smart bearings include rolling bearing, sliding bearing, magnetic bearing, and rubber bearing. The principle and structure of these bearings are analyzed. Their advantages and shortcomings are discussed. Results: Through the analysis of relevant patents and papers on smart bearings, the current development status and problems of smart bearings are summarized, the future design of smart bearings is proposed, and the research ideas and directions are proposed. Conclusion: The development of smart bearings is conducive to the timely detection of bearing conditions in the operation process. Except for detection, smart bearings have the functions of judgment, feedback, processing, etc. There are many factors that interfere with the accuracy of the smart bearing judgment and information transfer, so it is necessary to improve the structure and working principle of smart bearings through a variety of measures. In the future, more smart bearings will be invented.