I must confess I sometimes find myself a bit dazed when discussing lubrication issues with either staff or vendors. The terminology seems to be all over the lot, with some terms having double meanings. Can you help cut through the confusion?
For maximum life in carburized and ground gearing, I have been advised that fully grinding a radius into the root gives maximum resistance against fatigue failures. Others have advised that a hobbed and unground radius root form is best. Which is best, and why?
Understanding the morphology of micropitting is critical in determining the root cause of failure. Examples of micropitting in gears and rolling-element bearings are presented to illustrate morphological variations that can occur in practice.
I. Inspect failed components as soon as possible. If an early on-site inspection is not possible, someone at the site must preserve the evidence based on your instructions.
Q&A is an interactive gear forum. Send us you gear design, manufacturing, inspection or other related questions, and we will pass them to our panel of experts.
Geoffrey Parrish has updated and expanded his previous book: The Influence of Microstructure on the Properties of Case-Carburized Components. It now contains at least twice the material. References and bibliography include 449 citations.
Photography is an essential part of gear failure analysis. It not only provides a fast, convenient way to accurately document the appearance of gear failure, but also is an effective diagnostic tool because the magnification obtained through photographic enlargement and slide projection often discloses evidence that may have been missed if the gears were not photographed.
From time to time, the editors of "Shop Floor" receive correspondence from readers relating to particular articles they have written for past issues. As one of the purposes of this column is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, we reproduce here two of these letters and their replies. The subject of the first is the functional measurement of gears. (See Gear Technology, Sept/Oct, 1991, p. 17) Robert E. Smith writes the reply.