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DAMAGE TO GEARS

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Damage to gears is basically categorized by two types; one is the damage to the tooth surface, and
the other is breakage of the gear tooth. In addition, there are other speci c damages, such as the
deterioration of plastic material, the rim or web breakages.
Damages occur in various ways, for example, insu cient gear strength, failure in lubrication or
mounting and unexpected overloading. Therefore, it is not easy to gure out solutions to causes. Gear
damage are de ned by the following standards:
•JGMA 7001-01(1990) Terms of gear tooth failure modes
•JIS B 0160: 1999 Gears – Wear and damage to gear teeth – Terminology

14.1 Gear Wear and Tooth Surface Fatigue

Wear occurs on tooth surfaces in various ways. Run-in wear is a type of wear with slight asperity
occurring on start-up. This wear involves no trouble in operation. Critical wear is the state of gears
from which a small quantity of the material is scraped away from the tooth surface. If the wear
expands until the tooth pro le gets out of the shape, the gear can not be properly meshed anymore.
Tooth surface fatigue occurs when the load is applied on the tooth surface repeatedly, or when the
force is applied on the tooth is larger than endurance limit of the material. As the result of the surface
fatigue, the material fails and falls off the tooth surface.
The surface fatigue includes pitting, case crushing and spalling.
If a critical wear or progressive pitting occurs on the tooth surface, the following phenomena occurs:

Increase of noise or vibration

Excessive increase in temperature at the gear device
Increase of smear by lubricant
Increase of backlash
 

By properly removing the causes of these troubles, damage can be

avoided.

The following introduces causes of tooth damage and examples of

the solution.

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(1) When the tooth surface strength is insu cient against the load

Solution 1 : Increasing of the strength of the tooth surface

** Change the material to a stronger material having more hardness.
S45C -> SCM440 / SCM415 etc.
Refer to the section 9. Gear Material and Heat Treatment (Page 565 – 566).
** Enlarge the gear size
Enlarge module and number of teeth.
** Enlarge the facewidth
** Exchange the gear to the stronger gear with helical gear teeth.
– Change from Spur gear to Spiral gear
– Change from Straight Bevel gear to Spiral bevel gear
(Improvement of overlap ratio)

Solution 2 : Decreasing the load

** Reduce the load by changing driving conditions

(2) Improper tooth contact caused by bad mounting

Solution：Adjusting the tooth contact
Detailed methods for this solution differ with types of gears.
For adjustment of bevel and worm gears, refer to the section 8.3 Features of Tooth Contact (Page
562 – 564).

(3) When partial contact occurs due to bad mounting

Solution : Change design of the gear, shaft and bearing to make them stronger.
By increasing stiffness, tooth contact improves.

(4) When lubrication is in a poor condition

Solution : Provide appropriate conditions for the lubricant; proper type, viscosity, and quantity.
Refer to the section 13 Lubrication of Gears (Page 608 – 611).

14.2 Gear Breakage

There are also several types of gear breakage. Overload breakage occurs if unexpected heavy loads
are applied to the tooth. Fatigue breakage occurs if the load is repeatedly added on the tooth surface.
The tooth breakage caused by partial contact at the tooth end, occurs on spur or bevel gears. The
following introduces causes of breakage and solution examples.

(1) When the tooth is broken by the impact load

Solution 1. Increase bending strength (Gear strength)
Changing the material or enlarging the module is one of the most effective methods. The method is
the same as the method of increasing surface strength.
Solution 2. Decrease or eliminate the impact load.
For example, reducing rotating speed is effective.

(2) Fatigue breakage from cyclic Loading

Solution 1. Increase gear strength
The detailed method is the same as the way of increasing tooth surface strength.
Solution 2. Reducing the load or the rotation

(3) Breakage occurs when the wear progresses and the tooth gets thinner.
In the rst place, preventing wear must be performed.

14.3 Types of Damage and Breakage

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There are various types of damage and breakage that can occur to gears, this section introduces
some of those as de ned by the JGMA 7001-01(1990) and the industrial standards set by the Japan
Gear Manufacturers Association.

Table 14.1 Damages to Gears

Term No. Damage Description

1 Deterioration of tooth surface
11 Wear (Abrasion) Gradual loss of material on the tooth surface from various causes.
Not really identi ed as damage. After initial use, the irregularity of the
111 Normal Wear
tooth surfaces is kept in good balance.
1111 Medium Wear Wear on tooth surface identi ed by checking tooth contact.
The state of the tooth surface becomes smooth like a mirror as the
1112 Polishing
asperity of the surface is removed gradually.
Linear scratches run irregularly on the tooth surface in the slipping
112 Abrasive Wear
direction.
113 Excessive Wear Excessively worn over the lifetime of the product.
Wear of the tooth root, occurred by interference between the corner
114 Interference Wear
of the gear and the tooth root of the mating gear.
115 Scratching Type of abrasive wear. Linear scratches occur on the surface.
Surface deterioration caused by alternate deposition and tearing of
116 Scoring
tooth surface.
Type of light damage on the tooth surface. Slightly scratched in
1161 Medium Scoring
slipping direction.
1162 Destructive Scoring Visible scratching and tooth pro le destroyed.
1163 Local Scoring Medium scoring occurred locally.
12 Corrosion
121 Chemical Corrosion Brownish-red rust or pitting corrosion occurred on surface.
Surface damage occurs on the part where two of the tooth surfaces
122 Fretting Corrosion are in contact and involve relative reciprocal motion with ne
vibration.
A prominent area of the tooth surface was oxidized when heat
123 Scaling
treatment was applied. The prominent area gets glossy.
13 Over Heating Excessive heat temperature on tooth surface. Temper color appears.
14 Cavitation Erosion Local erosion caused by forced oil-jet lubrication and its impact.
Small pitting on tooth surface that occurs due to electric discharge
15 Electric Corrosion
between the meshed gear teeth.
Tooth Surface
16 Damages on teeth, involving a fall-off of material.
Fatigue
Pits occurred on the tooth surface. Pitting often occurs at the pitch
161 Pitting
line or under.
A wearing phenomenon occurs in initial usage. It stops its
1611 Initial Pitting
progression when the tooth surface is broken-in.
A wearing phenomenon occurs and does not stop its progression
1612 Progressive Pitting
even when the tooth surface becomes engaged.
Slight pitting occurs when only a thin oil lm is generated and when
1613 Frosting
heavy loading is applied.
A kind of spalling. Thin steel pieces fall off from the rather large area
162 Flake Pitting
of the tooth.
Material fatigue occurs under the surface, and quite large pieces of
163 Spalling
steel fall off.

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164 Case Crushing Abrasion occurs on the surface layer. The layer is damaged in broad
areas.
Permanent
17
Deformation
Dent in the tooth occurs by involving an object enmeshed in the teeth
171 Indentation
while working.
A typical state of permanent deformation. The deformation is not
1721 Plastic Deformation
recovered after removing the load.
1721 Rolling Indented streaks occur around the pitch line.
Deformation by Deformation occurs when excessive vibration load is added and the
1722
Gear Rattle meshed teeth engage with each other.
Ripples periodically occur on the tooth surface in the rolling and
173 Rippling
normal direction.
Ridges or crests occurs from plastic ow of the material right under
174 Ridging
the tooth surface.
 A plastic deformation similar to rolling. The state of the material at
175  Burr
the tooth tip or edge is evident.
 A small plastic deformation occurs on the tooth surface or at the
176  Dent
corner of the tip. This deformation involves concaving and prongs.
 A type of fracture. There are two types of cracks, one occurs in the
18  Crack
production process, and the other occurs from usage.
181 Quenching Crack Cracks occurred by quenching.
182 Grinding Crack Slight cracks occurred when grinding the teeth.
Cracks at the tooth root or llet, occur under reserved alternating
183 Fatigue Crack
stress and variable stress.
2 Tooth Breakage
Breakage occurs on the tooth when unexpected heavy loads are
21 Overload Breakage
applied to the tooth.
Breakage on Tooth Often occurs on spur or spiral gears. This brakeage is caused from
22
Ends partial contacts of meshed teeth in the width-direction.
The state of teeth sheared from the body, occurred by a one time
23 Tooth Shearing
excessive load.
Marked and deformed tooth pro le, caused from intolerable heavy
24 Smear Breakage
loads on the material of the tooth.
A breakage caused from running cracks occurring at the tooth root
25 Fatigue Breakage
llet.
3 Rim and Web Breakage
4 Deterioration of Plastic Gears
Volume expansion occurs when solid substance absorbs uids
41 Swelling
without changing the structure.
 

Additional Explanation
(1) Pit:
Tiny holes like pockmarks occur on the tooth surface.
(2) Beach mark fractured surface :
Patterns occurred from fatigue breakage, similar to the striping patterns on sandy beaches, which
occur from the waves of the sea or ocean.

Appendix : Gear Damage Analysis Models

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Gear damage belongs to complicated and compound phenomenon, and it is very di cult to analyze
the reason. The basic models in this data are the essence accumulated in many years by KHK
Company, which are very valuable. In practice, the damage is often the complicated phenomenon
including certain model as the principle thing which is accompanied with other models.

Damage phenomenon: Breakage at gear ank of gears

Explanation :

1. The breakage often happens at the gear ank, and it is total breakage.
2. The breakage surface is kept with overall metal crystal graininess, with no trace of plastic
breakage.
3. The breakage surface appears in sharp edge around.
4. The breakage surface is uniform in color, with no trace of color layers.
5. It belongs to acute damage situations.

Reasons :

1. Fault in design, and there is great distance between gear strength and practical load.
2. Unstable load, and there is extreme sudden over stress.
3. There is excessive impact load during operation process.
4. Other accidents on operation.

Countermeasures :

1. Con rm the design again, especially, if this breakage happens not long after usage, it illustrates
that the gear strength is not su cient, and veri cation on design shall be conducted.
2. Verify the using conditions again, and pay special attention to the starting load, inertia problem
and vibration shock problems.
3. Eliminate accident reasons.

Damage phenomenon: Breakage at gear edge of gears

Explanation :

1. The breakage often happens at the end of the single edge of the gear.
2. The breakage surface is kept with metal crystal graininess, with no trace of plastic breakage.
3. The breakage surface appears in sharp edge.
4. The breakage surface is uniform in color, with no trace of color layers.
5. It belongs to acute damage situations.

Reasons :

1. The load is not distributed on the tooth width, but concentrated on the end, which leads to the
generation of extreme large stress concentration.
2. The main reason leading to stress concentration is the error on gear shaft alignment.
3. It is caused by insu cient rigidity of gear box or support frame.

Countermeasures :

1. Improve the parallel precision between gear shafts.

2. Strengthen the rigidity of gear box and support frame in reinforcement method.
3. Adopt crowing gear teeth.

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4. Shorten the distance between gear shaft bearings.

5. Overstrike the size of gear shaft.

Damage phenomenon: Breakage at gear face of gears

Explanation :

1. The breakage happens at the gear face, and there are different colors or color layers on the
breakage surface.
2. The breakage surface is kept with metal crystal, with trace of plastic bearing deformation.
3. The breakage surface edge is not sharp enough.
4. There are striped irregular debris and foreign matters.
5. It can be regarded as acute damage situation.

Reasons :

1. The gear is inserted with striped foreign matter with high rigidity, and bearing breakage
happens.
2. The centre distance of the gear is wrong (much larger than the correct value), and there is
sudden change in load or aggressive load during operation.
3. Others.

Countermeasures :

1. Check and verify that the adjacent parts are xed and locked rmly, without phenomenon of
dropping on the gear set.
2. Con rm the correct centre distance, with full depth meshing operation.
3. Eliminate possibilities of aggressive loads and sudden change in load.
4. Eliminate all the accident reasons.

Damage phenomenon: Fatigue failure of gears

Explanation :

1. There is no metal crystal graininess on the breakage surface, which appears with bearing
smooth blocks, and there are directional berous metal ows.
2. The breakage surface does not appear as sharp edge.
3. The breakage does not generate at a moment, but develops along with certain direction from an
edge. There are color layers band on the breakage layer.
4. It is obviously the chronic aging damage.

Reasons :

1. It is obviously the damage caused by material fatigue under long term high speed operation.
2. The gear surface is not smooth, with tiny concave-conves, scratch and craquelure, which will
generate stress concentration in long term high speed operation, and accelerates the fatigue
failure.
3. There is not su cient consideration on endurance limit during design, which leads to the poor
endurance tension of materials and the failure.
4. It is easy for rusted and erosive gear to generate fatigue failure.

Countermeasures :

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1. Re-considerate the endurance limit factor and set the allowable stress, and conduct design
again.
2. Adopt quenching hardening; gear with smooth surface such as gear grinding. Can greatly
improve fatigue resistance effect, and rust resistance measures have good effect on anti-
fatigue.
3. Thoroughly check, and do not adopt gears with rough surface, tiny veins, crazing and scratch.
4. Change the material of the gear, and adopt high rigidity rolled steel such as SNCM series of JIS.

Damage phenomenon: Aggressive wear of gears

Explanation :

1. It is inevitable for the wear of the gear with sliding contact surface. However, normal wear has a
very slow speed, with slight degree, and the hard and ne surface with bright friction surface
will not invasively and rapidly deteriorate.
2. The invasive friction will deteriorate rapidly and invasively, and the friction surface is not ne
enough, and not bright enough, without forming hard surface. In condition of further
deterioration, there is irregularly raised edge on the top of the gear, and the thickness of the gear
becomes thinner rapidly, which is called as peening phenomenon.

Reasons :

1. The stress born by the gear exceeds than the elastic limit and achieves around the yield point. It
appears as over stress.
2. The material of the gear is over soft, without su cient hardness, or there is no heat treatment at
all.
3. The gear is exposed under dusty environment which accelerates wear.
4. The poor matching of other materials accelerates the wear.
5. There is metal powder impurity in the lubricating oil which accelerates wear.

Countermeasures :

1. Recheck the design, and adopt modulus one grade larger to avoid over stress.
2. Verify the heat treatment method, to ensure the hardness of the surface of the gear.
3. Change the matching of materials and the coordination between hardness.
4. Avoid dust, and isolate dust, and change the environment.
5. Use senior grade lubricating oil with good nature.
6. Pay attention to the ltration and puri cation of lubricating oil.

Damage phenomenon: Gear failure by pitting

Explanation :

1. There are many shrinkage pools on surface of the gear, especially around the pitch cerdes,
similar to the condition of eroded.
2. With the continuity of operation time, the little pools continue to extend; at the same time, the
pitting is larger and larger. A lot of falling off blocks distributing in gear box, until the gear is
totally damaged.
3. It obviously belongs to chronic damage, and surface fatigue of gear surface.

Reasons :

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1. Because of the improper consideration of texture, hardness and load, the actually born load
exceeds than the surface endurance limit of the gear.
2. The harden layer on surface of the gear is too tiny and thin, and cannot bear the surface
pressure, and the crack generates which invokes to surface peeling.
3. The harden layer on the surface is crispy, and it is easier for the occurrence of hole erosion
when the hardness of the core is too soft.

Countermeasures :

1. Adopt surface pressure strength, i.e., Herz surface pressure calculation formula to re-verify the
design.
2. Take su cient consideration on the depth of the hardening layer during heat treatment, to
ensure su cient hardening layer, to keep the gear surface strength.
3. Especially, as for the carburized gear surface, in consideration that the core material is low-
carbon soft tissue, which cannot bear the surface pressure from the hard surface of the gear
surface and leads to surface crazing and hole erosion; therefore, it is necessary to pay special
attention to the depth of the carburized layer, and the insu cient carburized layer gives rise to
the insu cient surface pressure strength which leads to hole erosion.

Damage phenomenon: Gear failure by scoring

Explanation :

1. There are lines of cutting traces from the gear ank to the gear edge along with the gear
surface, and there are traces of burning and melting.
2. There are oil shortage and dry friction type surface roughening traces at rst, and then there are
burning, melting and tearing traces.
3. There seems to be the meshing of the other gear surface material on the gear surface, which is
obviously scoring phenomenon. Besides, this damage belongs to chronic and gradual
deterioration.

Reasons :

1. The lubrication oil quality is poor, with improper viscosity, and it loses lubricating effect because
of the cracking of oil lm when during the gear meshing contact.
2. The poor lubricating results in the oil shortage state and losing of lubricating effect.
3. The poor matching of material; there may be scoring phenomenon between materials with
advertency, for example, it is very easy to generate scoring with the matching between soft
copper.
4. The load is over large, and the oil temperature is too high, and there is abnormal temperature
rise, and incomplete cooling.

Countermeasures :

1. Re-consider the speci cation of lubricating oil, and adopt oil sample with high scoring index.
2. Strengthen the circulation volume of lubricating oil and adopt forced lubrication.
3. Take the cooling system of lubricating oil into consideration, to reduce the temperature rise of
lubricating oil.
4. It may happen in conditions that the load is over large, and the oil temperature is too high, and
there is abnormal temperature rise, and incomplete cooling.

Damage phenomenon: Gouging damage on gear ank of gears

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Explanation :

1. The damage situation is similar to that of scoring; however, it happens on the gear ank at
rstly, and extends to the gear edge.
2. It rstly happens at the gear ank of driving gear, and not at the passive gear at the same time.
3. There is only bearing phenomenon at the sharp corner on the passive gear at rst.
4. It belongs to chronic damage, which gradually deteriorates and spreads to all the passive and
driving gears.

Reasons :

1. The sharp corner of the gear edge is too sharp, which leads to the damage during the meshing
moment.
2. The hardness of passive gear greatly exceeds than the driving gears. According to the hardness
matching principle, it is required for the driving gear to be harder than the passive gear; there is
error in the shape of the pair of gears.
3. The lubricating oil is not properly used, and the improper matching of texture gives rise to the
scoring.

Countermeasures :

1. Conduct semi-topping on the edge of the top of the passive gear, to relieve the striking at the
contact moment.
2. The most complete method is: cutting at the addendum of the gear, to make it the trimmed gear
shape.
3. Topping has better effect.
4. It is very important to adopt the same value for the standard pressure angle of the hobber cutter
or sharpener of a pair of gears.

Kohara Gear Industry Co.,Ltd.

13-17 Nakacho Kawaguchi-shi Saitama-ken, 332-0022, Japan
E-mail : info@khkgears.net   TEL : +81 48 254 1744   FAX : +81 48 254 1765

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