Detecting a damaged component in an electric machines doesn’t mean that it will fail immediately, soon or even within a few years! In this perspective, we try to distinguish between indirect failures, direct failures and the path in between. This path we call the failure mechanism (or failure mode).

Identifying the current stage of the failure process through monitoring will not only provide insights on the next steps in the failure mode, but as well about its root cause. The latter is key to proactively avoid similar failures in the future.