TROUBLE SHOOTING OF GEAR BOX

Introduction

The most common gear problems are noise, overheating, vibration tooth wear, and tooth
breakage. The following is a discussion of the most common causes of and remedies of each
type of problem.

Gear Noise

Unfortunately, gear units are a noise source. Manufacturers are working on solutions, but
they have not found any economical answers. Many facts, some of which are listed below, can
contribute to gear noise. However, the causes are not limited to the items on this list.

1. Tooth Spacing Errors:

Spacing errors are usually caused by manufacturing problems, damage to the teeth during
assembly/disassembly, or occasionally during operation when foreign objects pass through the
mesh. The spacing error may cover only one tooth space or a number of tooth spaces. This type
of error usually will cause a bumping noise or a cyclic noise with a frequency equal to the
rotating speed of the gear of opinion with the spacing error. In most cases, the gear will just run
roughly and have reduced life.

2. Involute Error:

Involute is the curve form used for the mating tooth surfaces. It is not necessary that the involute
be “text-book” but the tooth flank curves must be conjugate, that is, matching. This error can
occur when these surfaces are either manufactured incorrectly or destroyed by wear or scoring.

3. Surface Finish:

Surface finish on gear teeth very seldom causes noise except in extreme cases of scoring or
abrasive wear.

4. Lead Error (helix angle error)

Lead error is only important if the leads (helix angles) of the gear and opinion are not matched.
When the leads do not match, the gear may be quiet when new, and as wear occurs, the gear will
become noisy.

5. Wear on Tooth Flanks

Wear only causes noise when it is severe and when the gear teeth do not wear evenly and
maintain conjugate action.

6. Pitting
Tooth flank pitting is not a great influence on noise unless it is very severe.

7. Resonance

Exciting the natural frequency of gears, shafting, housing, or supports can produce high noise
levels. The most troublesome resonances tend to be in the housings and support bases and can
sometimes be corrected with additional stiffening.

8. Tooth Deflections

Under load, teeth deflect and tend to lose their conjugate forms. Gear manufacturers modify the
involute form so that under load, interference does not occur, and conjugate action is maintained.
Excessive tooth deflections can cause noise.

9. Improper Tip or Root Relief

This is one method of making the tooth deflection corrections as required in No. 8. The higher
the load on a gear tooth, the more tip or root relief is required to prevent interference or to
maintain lubricant film.

10. Pitch Line Run out

Pitch line run out is a form of tooth spacing error where each tooth is not an equal distance from
the axis of rotation. This usually shows up a cyclic noise with a frequency equal to the shaft
rotation speed.

11. Excessive Backlash

Excessive backlash can only cause noise when the gear set has torque reversals. Large amounts
of backlash should never be used as criteria for determining whether a gear is acceptable for use.
On non-reversible drives, backlash is only important when it becomes so excessive that the tooth
strength is reduced.

12. Too Little Backlash

A gear set without sufficient backlash to account for manufacturing errors and thermal growth is
a disaster. These gears will be noisy and will fail in a very short time.

13. Noise Transmitted From Driving or Driven Machine

A gear housing is a large drum-like container and can amplify the noises emitted through the
structure from the motors, compressors, pumps, generators, etc.

14. Load Intensity

As a rough rule of thumb, the higher the load intensity, the higher the load intensity, the higher
the noise level. As just pointed out, gear teeth require tooth form modifications to account for
deflections under load. As a result, the higher the load intensity, the harder it is to make these
corrections properly.

15. Rolling Element Bearings

This type of bearing tends to be more noisy than others due to the loose pieces in the bearing
such as cages and rollers. Also, the roller passing frequency is quite high and will produce noise.

16. Clutches and Couplings

Couplings are some of the primary noise producers of rotating machinery. Wintage noise is
produced by the bolts and other openings in the coupling flanges. Clutches have all of the
problems of couplings but in addition have a tendency to rattle.

17. Face Overlap Ratio

This is the number of teeth in contact at any time across the face of a gear. With more teeth in
contact, gear errors tend to average out producing quieter gear operation. The best way to
increase face overlap ratio is to use a higher helix angle during manufacture.

18. Transverse Contact Ratio

This is the number of teeth in contact in a transverse plane. Low pressure angle gears have
higher contact ratios and are quieter but do not have adequate tooth strength. Generally, a
compromised pressure angle is selected to give an optimum balance between contact ratio and
bending strength.

19. Lube Oil Pump and Piping

Lube oil pumps can be extremely noisy if the piping is not properly designed. The most
common cause of pump noise are cavitations in the pump suction area and piping resonance.

Gear noise can be controlled to some extent by three measures: very careful design and super
quality manufacturing; extra heavy cast iron or double wall steel housings, and acoustical
enclosures. Any of these measures can be used singly or in combination with one or both of the
other measures to effectively reduce gear noise.

Very careful design and super quality manufacturing is the most expensive way to control gear
noise in addition to being the most difficult to apply. Contrary to some opinions, the perfect gear
is useless for power transmission because of tooth deflections under load. The trick is to obtain a
gear which has a perfect involute (or conjugate) form under load. The harder the gear, the more
deflection there is due to higher allowable loading; as a result, good mesh conditions are more
difficult to obtain since the involute produced is distorted more.
Secondly, extra heavy cast iron or double wall housings used with reasonably accurate gearing
can be very effective in controlling gear noise. This method is less expensive than the first and is
easier to apply consistently in manufacturing. Also, retuning techniques can be used on housings
and gear blanks to reduce noise based on calculated and experimental data.

Using an acoustical enclosure is the least expensive way to reduce gear noise. Almost any noise
level can be attained if space is not a problem. However, sound enclosures have a very definite
disadvantage when maintenance is required. In addition, the inability of operators or
maintenance personnel to actually place their hands on the equipment or hear the noise emitted if
problems begin to appear may allow total destruction of the gear unit to occur instead of just
minor damage. No matter how sophisticated the monitoring equipment, the sense of touch and
bearing are still the best indications of a machine’s condition.

OVER HEATING

Before it can be determined whether or not a gear unit is

overheating, the expected operating temperature must be determined. Very low speed gears will
run near the ambient temperature, and some high speed drives may operate above 2500F.

Overheating in gear units may be caused by:

1. Low Oil Level

This condition will lead to both overheating and gear failure should the level fall below a point
where the gear teeth or the oil pump can pick up the oil.

2. High Oil Level

High oil level will cause overheating due to the heat generated when the gear teeth run under too
much oil. Many high speed units have an oil level just below the gear teeth, and to allow these
gears to dip in oil causes over-heating.

3. Internal Failure or Poor Assembly

Overheating can be caused by a multitude of things from gear tooth breakage to internal rubs or
even gear teeth improperly meshed.

4. Blocked or Reduced Oil Passages

Many gear designs include either cast or machined oil passages and drilled orifices. These
passageways can be blocked by oil deposits, sludge, or excessive sealants, thereby reducing oil
flow and producing overheating.

5. High Ambient Temperature

Overheating can be due to the high climatic temperature in areas around furnaces, paper
machines, and other machines that radiate heat. This situation can be corrected by external
cooling or in some cases by the use of heat shields.

6. Low Bearing Clearance

Reduced bearing clearance can be caused by pinching the bearing at the bore split line, by not
having sufficient clearance bored into journal-type bearings, or by having the wrong clearance in
roller bearings. This condition will usually show up as localized overheating and can be detected
with bearing instrumentation.

7. Housing Coated with Foreign Material

A foreign material on the exterior of the housing reduces the heat transfer to the air, and many
gear designs depend on radiation and convection to the air for cooling.

8. Internal Rubs

This condition usually results from poor assembly and occurs when part of a gear rotating
element actually rubs internal piping or housing walls.

9. Insufficient Water Flow to the Cooler

This condition can usually be checked by measuring the water inlet and outlet temperatures. If
the temperature rise across the cooler is higher than the designed rise, insufficient water flow is
usually indicated.

10. Malfunction of Oil Heaters

Oil heaters are used to raise the oil temperature for start-up or to maintain an acceptable oil
temperature during extremely cold conditions. Should the thermocouples or thermostats on these
oil heaters malfunction, they can overheat the oil.

11. Contaminated Oil Filter

This condition can cause overheating by reducing oil flow to the gear unit. If the contamination
is excessive, the element can collapse and be carried into the oil passages, reducing oil flow and
causing overheating.

VIBRATION

All gear units operate at certain vibration levels. Generally speaking, Figures 7-32, 7-33, and
Table 7-2 depict vibration values expected of a gear unit properly installed and in good
condition. Vibration levels above these may be perfectly acceptable but must be evaluated on a
case-by-case basis.

Excessive vibration may be caused by:

1. Unbalance:

This phenomenon is the most common cause of gear unit vibration and can be produced by
broken teeth, couplings, key fitting practice, improper balancing during manufacture, poor
assembly of gear to shaft, and even oil inside the gear blanks. Almost any vibration specialist
can isolate the cause of unbalance vibration and either balance the parts or determine what must
be corrected.

2. Loose Foundation Bolts:

This condition is usually detected by inspection. When retightening loose foundation bolts, be
careful that shims are not missing. Be sure that the housing foot is not “soft”

3. Coupling Misalignment:

Misalignment is a serious problem with gear units, and many papers have been written on
alignment control. A machinery train that is properly aligned today will change over the years
due to settling of the foundation. Misalignment severe enough to cause high vibration levels will
damage the gear set and shorten the life.

4. Inadequate Foundation:

This cause of vibration is self explanatory and is most generally due to improperly designed and
manufactured steel bases under gear units.

5. Wear in Bearings and Gears:

Wear in gear teeth most generally shows up as an increase in the vibration or acceleration levels
at tooth mesh frequency. Bearing wear can be detected by excessive clearance in journal-type
bearings and pitting or spalling of rolling element bearings.

6. Lateral and Torsional Critical Speed Response:

On high speed drives, lateral critical speeds of the shafts become very important, and users
should be very careful when changing couplings to be sure that the weights and centers of
gravity are the same as used during design stages. Torsional critical response is very important
but is most common on reciprocating machines. In addition to causing vibration, both of these
responses reduce gear life and in some extreme cases can cause immediate failure.

7. Coupling Lockup:
Lock up is a form of coupling misalignment that occurs when toothed couplings are unable to
shift axially to account for thermal growth. This condition can be caused by full load starts, Poor
lubrication, wear, and centrifuging of the coupling lubricant.

8. Coupling Wear:

On toothed couplings, wear can cause both coupling lockup and shifting of the loose pieces on
the coupling. As an example, the teeth on the outer element of a gear tooth coupling can wear
and allow the sleeves and spacer to shift off center. This shifting then produces an unbalance
equal to the weight of the shifted coupling parts times the distance shifted.

9. Lack of Coupling Lubricant:

Inadequate coupling lubricant will prevent the coupling from performing as required by the
design and is equivalent to having a rigid shaft connection.

10. Coupling Not as Designed:

The use of couplings with weights and stiffness different than the original design can cause
encroachment on lateral and Torsional natural frequencies of the system. On very low speed
drives, coupling weight has much less importance than on pinions operating at high rates of
speed.

11. Improper Installation:

This subject covers a broad range of problems from foundation to lube oil and cooling water
piping connections. When planning a gear unit installation, all environmental conditions must be
carefully considered since operating conditions will vary with the cold wind, hot sun, and all
other external influences.

BELT DRIVES TROUBLE SHOOTING

Power transmission by belts is described as the transmission

of power from a prime mover to one or more driven machines by means of a flexible non-
metallic member. The belt operates in conjunction with a pulley or sheave mounted on each of
the rotating shafts.

Trouble Cause Remedy

-Belt stretch beyond take up
Belt stretch unequally Misaligned drive, Realign and retention drive
unequal work done by
belts.
Belt tensile member Replace all belts with new matched set,
broken from improper properly installed
 installation
All belts stretch about Insufficient take up Check take up & follow allowance
equally allowance recommended by manufacturer.
Greatly overloaded or Redesign
under designed drive
-Short belt life
Relatively rapid failure, Tensile members Replace with new matched set, properly
no visible reason damaged through installed.
improper installation
Worn sheave grooves Replace sheaves
Under designed drive Redesign
Sidewalls soft & sticky. Oil or grease on belts or Remove source of oil or grease. Clean
Low adhesion between sheaves bolts & grooves
cover plies. Cross
section swollen.
Sidewalls dry & hard. High temperatures Remove heat sources. Ventilate drive
Low adhesion between better
cover plies. Bottom of
belt cracked.
Deterioration of rubber Belt dressing Never use dressing on V-belts. Clean
compounds used in belt belts & grooves. Tension drive properly
to prevent slip.
Extreme cover wear Belts rub against belt Remove obstruction or Align drive to
guard or other give needed clearance
obstruction
Spin burns on belt Belts slip under starting Retention drive until slipping stops
or stalling load
Bottom of belt cracked Sheaves too small Redesign for larger sheaves
Broken belts Object falling into or Replace with new matched set of bolts.
hitting drive Provide shield for drive
-Belt turnover Excess lateral belt slip. Use joined V-belt
Foreign material in Remove material shield drive
grooves
Misaligned sheaves Realign drive.
Worn sheave grooves Replace sheave
Tensile member broken Replace with new matched set properly
thro’ improper installed
installation
Incorrectly placed flat Carefully align flat idler on slack side of
idler pulley drive as close as possible to driver
sheave.
-Belt noise Belt slip Re-tension drive until it stops slipping
-Spin burns on belt Belt slip Re-tension drive until it stops slipping
-Hot bearings Drive over Worn grooves. Belt Replace sheaves. Tension drive properly
tensioned bottoming & will not
transmit power until over
 tensioned
Sheaves too small - Redesign
Poor bearing condition Under designed bearings Observe recommended bearing design
or poor bearing and maintenance
maintenance.
Sheaves out too far on Error or obstruction Place sheaves as close as possible to
shaft problem bearings. Remove any obstruction
preventing this
Drive under tensioned Belts slipping & causing Retention drive
heat build-up