All seals have interference in order to function. As seals wear, the interference decreases until at some point the seal fails either by allowing contaminants into the machinery or by allowing lubricating fluid to leak out. Seal wear means regular inspections. The SMART SEAL places a circuit on the seal located at the point of maximum acceptable wear. When seal wear reaches this point, grounding of the circuit or an open circuit indicates the seal should be replaced prior to failure. Use of a SMART SEAL would eliminate catastrophic failures in machinery and allow for scheduling of preventive maintenance.