Thorough purging of all four bearing seals on each universal joint can help alleviate the possibility of mixing incompatible greases. U-joint cross, broken at a bearing surface. U-joints seldom break off at the bearing surface. It takes a very large shock load to cause this type of failure. It is also very difficult to inspect for this type of failure because they, many times, start as a small crack and progress into a complete failure some time further âdown the roadâ.
A quantity called the slew rate, which is the rate of change of gradient amplitude is usually quoted in evaluating gradient performance and potential physiological effects (e.g. a maximum slew rate of 200 Tm-1s-1).
The Delay Skew test tests for the difference in propagation delay between the fastest and slowest set of wire pairs. An ideal skew is between 25 and 50 nanoseconds over a 100-meter cable. The lower this skew the better; less than 25 ns is excellent, but 45 to 50 ns is marginal.