Patent ID: 7140228

Claim:
An antifriction bearing comprising: an inner bearing ring; an outer bearing ring spaced outward from and extending around the inner bearing ring; rolling antifriction elements in rolling contact with the inner and the outer rings; sensors at locations around the rings for determining length changes in the rolling contacts between the antifriction elements and one of the rings, wherein the sensors further comprise sensor units for determining the length change in the rolling contact for several of the antifliction elements over respective arcuate regions of the rings and the sensor units each are operable to define region vectors for the length changes of the rolling contacts in their respective regions; an interface connected with the sensor units for receiving the region vectors from each of the sensor units; and an evaluation unit for evaluating the region vectors supplied by the interface for determining a condition of the bearing that is dependent upon the length change in the rolling contacts between the antifriction elements and the one ring.