Bob Griese. Len Dawson. Drew Brees.
Anurag Garg. Anurag Garg?
No doubt about it—a mention of
Purdue University typically elicits
thoughts of All-American college quarterbacks
going on to become NFL gunslingers
of renown. Anurag Garg?
No, you won’t be seeing him on
your friendly flat screen on fall Saturdays
pitching the pigskin around. But
remember that name — as well as the
names of fellow student colleagues
and co-inventors Lokesh Gupta, Andrew
Kovacs and Christopher Ochynski
— for they, along with Garg, are the
Bearing Analytics team — a Purdue
Boilermakers juggernaut of a different
brew entirely. (Garg, Kovaks and
Gupta are doctoral candidates in the
school of electrical and computer engineering’s
adaptive radio electronics
and sensors group; Ochynski is a
senior in the school of electrical and
computer engineering and a first-year
student in the MBA program at the
Krannert school of management.)
And no, they haven’t helped the storied
university in West Lafayette, Indiana
win any Rose Bowls. But they did,
for example, take the student Grand
Prize at the prestigious Midwest Clean
Energy Challenge in Chicago this past
February ($100,000 and $10,000 worth
of legal services); finished in the money
($1,250) in the April Rice Business
Plan Competition in Houston; and
also took the Best Written Business
Plan Award ($3,000). The Rice success
qualifies the team to compete in
the national competition this month
in Washington, D.C. But this should
come as no surprise as, leaving college
football aside, Purdue has long nurtured
its well-deserved reputation as a
top-flight engineering school.
The hard work that has gotten the
Bearing Analytics team this far was in their developing a patent-pending sensor
—fixed directly onto the bearing cage
— that monitors bearing performance
with a predictive accuracy that, until
now, was virtually impossible. While
conventional bearing sensors that monitor
real-time bearing performance are
mounted outside the bearing, which
limits the ability to determine internal
conditions, “The Purdue-developed
technology allows a sensor to be placed
directly on the bearing cage, which is
the source of temperature and vibration
fluctuations,” explains Anurag Garg, a
doctoral candidate in Purdue’s School
of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
“As a result, (the sensor’s positioning)
provides a more reliable indicator
of impending bearing failure and has a
better response time than any commercial
sensor available on the market.”

Like most things worth having, the
new sensor technology took time to
develop; no eureka moments here.
Garg relates that “The technology was
developed over numerous iterations and incremental developments (at
Purdue) over seven years of research.
Also deserving recognition for their
roles in the project are the team’s
“mentors,” who the team credits with
“guiding the development of the technology”:
Professor Dimitrios Peroulis,
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
and School of Mechanical
Engineering; and Professors Farshid
Sadeghi and Douglas Adams of the
School of Mechanical Engineering.
During that timeframe, Garg states
that “The sensor has been reliably
tested in high temperatures — up to
800°F — and in turbochargers with
speeds up to 100 rpm. (These conditions)
cover nearly all applications, at
least as far as industrial machinery is
concerned. Of course there are some
applications (Dept. of Defense, etc.)
where additional research and testing
may be required.”
The sensor would appear to be a
major breakthrough in the technical
art of predicting bearing failure and a
legitimate leap beyond existing manufacturing technology. If it works as advertised,
it will have a far-reaching impact
on any number of industries and
manufacturing processes, and for both
OEM and downstream users. Right
now, however, the Bearing Analytics
team is focused on wind turbine gearboxes—
already a singularly significant
slice of the predictive maintenance
market.
“Wind turbine gearboxes are our primary
target market for (roll-out),” Garg
says. “However, the applications for this
technology permeate nearly every industrial
segment (owing to the fact that
bearings are a fundamental component
to nearly all mechanical systems).
Some of our potentially most profitable
markets include bearings used in the
manufacturing industry, and rotary
systems (e.g., pumps and motors used
in the oil and gas industry).”
And in case you were wondering,
federal agencies have some skin in the
game as well. Indeed, while the sensor
has drawn the expected, considerable
interest from (un-named for now)
numerous companies across various
industrial segments, Garg reveals that
“The research was completed through
grant funding (from) USAFR (U.S. Air
Force Research Lab) and NAVAIR (U.S.
Naval Air Systems Command).”
Garg also points out that an enhanced
capability to forestall and/or
prevent bearing breakdowns will alert
workers to “take early corrective action
(that) could improve safety conditions
for (personnel) while “(reducing) operational
downtime and increase bearing
life.” (One can almost see the smiles
on the faces of plant superintendents
and QA managers, for example, once
this new technology is in place. And
the potential
And as every successful Broadway
play has a deep-pocketed “angel” in the
wings, the Bearing Analytics Team has
the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.
The office oversees
one of the most extensive technology
transfer programs of any premier research
universities in the country. The
services provided by this office support
the economic development initiatives
of Purdue University and benefit the
university’s academic activities.

One last detail; mention counterfeit
bearings to anyone in the industry and
you will reap a wide range of — given
their vehemence — not-for-publication
responses. But keep hope alive—
counterfeiters’ comeuppance might
possibly be at hand. Garg makes no
promises on whether the new sensor
is up to the job of ferreting out illegal
knock-offs, but allows that, “In theory,
yes, this might be possible. However
no tests have been conducted to validate that hypothesis. It is something
that can be explored in the future to
create additional value.”