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Old 6th Aug 2017, 05:10
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riff_raff
 
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The link provided by CH above mentions the swashplate bearing should have been greased every 400 hrs per OEM, and every 100 hrs per operator's procedure. The swashplate bearing failure in this case apparently seized due to lack of lubrication/overheating just 1.2 flight hours after the last 100 hr inspection of the swashplate was scheduled per company procedures.

One thing that should be looked for when adding grease to rolling element aircraft bearings is any metallic debris within the old grease pushed out from inside the bearing. A properly designed bearing grease circuit will allow the fresh grease to completely displace the old grease from inside the bearing internal volume, along with any debris, moisture or contaminants. Obviously, this requires a significant amount of grease to be injected at one end, a discharge port at the opposite end to allow the old grease to exit, and an effective set of bearing seals in between to prevent leakage.

In this particular case, it should have been obvious visually if there was sufficient leakage of lubricant past the bearing seals to produce this type of failure within the limited amount of flight time since the last scheduled inspection. The report also states the bearing materials had a blue tint, which would indicate they were heated to a temperature close to 600degF. This is well above the safe operating temperature of conventional bearing steel alloys.
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