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Bill Hankes, A-C Equipment Services, USA,

explains why it is essential to minimise
wear to girth gearing in order to achieve
proper operation and maximise service life,
and discusses the importance of an
assessment and monitoring program.

Introduction
The operators of large gear driven equipment including
kilns, coolers, and grinding mills are frequently addressing
wear issues. Some of the components in these machines
are designed to function properly as they wear. Examples
of this include the support rings and carrying rollers on a
kiln or the liners in a grinding mill. Most components are
not designed to wear and therefore their performance
deteriorates over time. Examples of this include seals
(which leak as they wear), the shell (which can cata-
strophically fail), and the girth gearing (the topic of this
article). The question for all of these components ulti-
mately becomes how much wear is too much? Answering
this question with certainty is difficult, but an assessment
and monitoring program will prevent unscheduled down-
time and costly interruptions of production.
Kilns, coolers, and grinding mills are critical pieces of
equipment in any processing plant. One of the most
important components of these machines is the main
girth gear and mating pinion(s). This gearing is typically
custom made for each application and therefore the
lead time for replacement is measured in months, not
weeks. The cost of a girth gear set ranges from US$75
000 to over a US$1 million. With such a long lead time Figure 2. Pinion with original cutting tool marks. Polishing on
and high cost, girth gearing is designed to last many right side is caused by misalignment.
decades with proper maintenance.
Under ideal conditions, the gear and pinion teeth
should not wear. Ideal conditions include adequate lubri-
cation of the correct type, perfect alignment, constant

Figure 1. Tooth features. Figure 3. Severe gear profile wear.

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land, tooth profile, operating pitch diameter, and the
tooth root. Knowing these tooth features will assist the
reader to monitor the tooth condition.
The tooth profile is the working surface of the tooth.
Hence, the tooth profile is the area of the tooth that
wears. Mating gear teeth slide while in contact up and
down the tooth profile except at the operating pitch
diameter. The operating pitch diameter is the only loca-
tion on the tooth profile at which rolling occurs. The tooth
profile at the operating pitch diameter will wear at a dif-
ferent rate than the rest of the tooth. One of the first visu-
al clues to the presence of tooth wear is a distinct line at
the operating pitch diameter (Figures 5, 11 and 12) and a
wear step developing in the tooth root.
Figure 4. Mild pinion wear and edge plastic flow.

Effects of wear
The effects of wear range from minor to catastrophic. In
general, some wear is expected in girth gearing applica-
tions such as kilns, coolers, and grinding mills. This is
because the ideal conditions mentioned above never exist
in these applications. Girth gearing always has a combina-
tion of misalignment, varying load and contamination
resulting in at least mild wear. In addition, the material
being processed at most sites is abrasive, chemically active,
or both.
The effects of wear include:
Figure 5. Rippling and wear step. Note operating pitch diameter
Increased vibration.
is clearly visible.

Increased noise.

Loss of efficiency: increased power draw (amps).

Reduced load carrying capacity.

High localised stresses.

Cracking.

Catastrophic tooth failure.
Typically, the effects of wear take years to develop into
a condition of major concern. Occasionally, wear occurs
very quickly as in the case of the gear and pinion shown in
Figures 11 and 12, respectively. This gearing has only been
in operation for four months and has already experienced
significant tooth profile wear.
Unfortunately, once wear has occurred there is very lit-
tle that can be done to correct it. The best that can be
Figure 6. Mild gear profile wear and corrosion. done is to detect wear early and prevent it from progress-
ing. Ultimately, the only solution to severe wear is to
loads, infrequent starts, and no contamination. However, reverse the gearing (use an unworn tooth flank) or to
instead of using the term ideal conditions it would be replace the gearing.
more accurate to say conditions impossible to achieve in It should be noted that while it is typical to mesh an
the real world. Despite this, it is possible to assess, moni- unworn pinion with a worn gear, it is strongly discouraged
tor and minimise tooth wear. to operate a new gear with a worn pinion. The reason for
Since wear generally occurs slowly, the exact moment this is that the pinion wears faster than the gear (due to
when tooth failure will occur cannot be predicted. the difference in rotating speed between the pinion and
Severely worn teeth may operate for years until a slight gear). The pinion and gear wear into each other over time
increase in load or small change in alignment ultimately resulting in tooth profiles that become matched mating
causes tooth failure. This means methods of assessing and surfaces. A new pinion profile wears to mate adequately
monitoring wear are needed to avoid tooth failure. with a worn gear tooth profile. In fact, a new pinion has
To aid in the understanding of tooth wear, it is helpful been shown to heal or improve the appearance of worn
to know the major tooth features: Figure 1 shows the top gear tooth profiles. However, meshing a new gear with a
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worn pinion profile will quickly result in the destruction of
the gear tooth profile.

Types of tooth wear

The American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA)
Standard 1010-E95, Appearance of Gear Teeth
Terminology of Wear and Failure1, provides standard def-
initions for types of gear tooth wear. The following is
excerpted from AGMA 1010-E95.
Wear is a term describing change to a gear tooth sur-
face involving the removal or displacement of material,
due to mechanical, chemical, or electrical action.
Figure 7. Moderate wear and top land plastic flow.
Wear can be categorised as mild, moderate or severe.
Mild wear is considered normal in many applications.
Moderate and even severe wear may be acceptable in
some applications.
Girth gear applications are those where mild tooth
wear is considered normal. There are many different types
of wear. From AGMA 1010-E95, Table 1, the types of wear
include:

Adhesion.

Abrasion.

Scaling.

Polishing.

Corrosion.

Rippling. Figure 8. Severe plastic flow results in top land material separa-

Cavitation. tion. This material should be removed immediately to prevent
debris going through mesh.

Erosion.

Electrical discharge.

Fretting corrosion.
The first five types listed are typically observed on girth
gear and pinion teeth. Actual examples of these are pre-
sented in Figures 2 through to 12.
There are many other types of tooth distress that also
occur. These include plastic flow, debris denting, contact
fatigue (pitting), scoring, cracking, fracture and bending
fatigue. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss in
detail all of these surface distress issues. However, it is
important to note that pitting is a contact fatigue issue
and is not considered a wear phenomenon.
In service, gear teeth almost always experience several
Figure 9. Very severe gear profile wear meshing with newer
types of tooth distress simultaneously. It is not unusual to
pinion. This gear should be replaced as soon as possible.
observe abrasion, polishing, pitting and plastic flow on
the same tooth as the photographs in this article demon-

Frequent starts.
strate.

Variable speed operation.
Causes of excessive wear
Gear design (tooth geometry, rating).
There are many causes of the wear types listed above.
Gear manufacturing (hardness, quality).
Below is a summary of the most common causes of girth
Overload.
gearing wear. In most cases, there will be multiple caus- Experience has shown that the gear design or manu-
es of wear occurring simultaneously. facture is rarely the root cause of a tooth wear problem.

Inadequate lubrication quantity/delivery. The maintenance practices of the site have much more

Incorrect grade of lubricant (viscosity too low). influence on the wear rate and therefore the operating

Incorrect lubricant additives. life of the gearing.

Contamination (debris, water). Solutions to wear

Misalignment. Each of the causes listed above can be investigated rela-
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Figure 10. Polishing, debris denting, moderate wear.

Figure 12. Pinion active tooth distress.

course, the best solution is to avoid the causes of wear at the

design stage of the equipment. This option is not available to
a site already in operation. Therefore, identifying the causes of
wear as soon as possible will minimise the impact on uptime
and maximise the service life of the gearing.

Monitoring wear
Properly installed and maintained girth gearing teeth will
have a smooth, dull, aluminum or brushed nickel appear-
ance. There should be no signs of surface distress and the
Figure 11. Gear active tooth distress. original tool marks from the tooth cutting (left side of
Figure 2) should remain visible for many years.
tively easily as to its role in causing wear. The corrective Tooth wear can be monitored by numerous methods.
action needed ranges from simple adjustments of the Tooth wear monitoring methods include:
lubrication system, changing the lubricant used or the
Visual inspection.
complete replacement of the gearing, guarding and lubri-
Digital photographs.
cation system.

Infrared temperature measurements and thermal pho-
Solutions to the causes of wear include:
tographs.

Visual inspection of lubricant spray patterns and/or level.
Straight edge test.

Work with a reputable lubricant supplier to ensure the
Tooth caliper measurements.
proper lubricant additive package is used.

CAD plots of the original tooth form.

Realign the gearing to the manufacturers specifications.

Tooth moulds.

Reduce load and/or speed variations.

Oil sample analysis (element and particulate count).

Perform an Elastrohydrodynamic (EHD) Analysis to deter-
mine the correct grade of lubricant needed. Physical measurements of the teeth using a tooth
caliper are the most precise method of monitoring wear.

Prevent the ingress of contaminants by sealing the guard.
A tooth caliper is a special type of micrometer used to very

Review the gearing design and rating. accurately measure tooth thickness. It is difficult and cost-

Review manufacturing records. ly (increased downtime) to perform repeatable tooth
In cases of extreme pinion wear and when other solutions thickness measurements in the field. Sites have actually
have not been effective, a pinion can be replaced in kind with reported teeth increasing in size!
one that has been case hardened. An induction hardened or Infrared temperature measurements provide a
carburised pinion is significantly harder than a typical through direct indication of alignment and areas of high
hardened pinion. The increased hardness and carbon content localised stress. Many manufacturers recommend using
in the surface of a case hardened pinion dramatically increases infrared temperature data to ensure proper alignment.
the wear resistance. The reader is advised that case hardening Thermal images provide a far more comprehensive indi-
a pinion can more than double its cost. The increased cost may cation of alignment and high localised stress. The ther-
be offset by reduced replacement costs and the associated mal image plots will pinpoint areas of concern quickly.
downtime that is avoided. It should be noted that temperature monitoring meth-
The solutions listed may range in cost and complexity from ods are typically more effective on grinding mills than
being essentially free (lube system adjustments) to being quite kilns or coolers. The slow operating speed of most kilns
expensive (a new gear guard with improved sealing). Of and coolers reduce the effectiveness of the temperature

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Figure 13. New gear profile with straight edge showing convex Figure 14. Worn tooth profile with straight edge showing con-
shape. (Photo courtesy of The Falk Corp., Milwaukee, WI.) cave shape. (Photo courtesy of The Falk Corp., Milwaukee, WI.)

gradient across the face width to identify misalignment.

For kilns, the heat radiated from the shell can interfere
with temperature monitoring equipment producing erro-
neous results.
One of most useful and easiest monitoring methods is
to take digital photographs at regular intervals. A photo-
graphic record of the tooth condition every week, month
or quarter, provides detailed evidence of the onset and
progression of wear. Reliance on the memory of site per-
sonnel is inconsistent at best and frequently unreliable. It
is not unusual for someone to look at the girth gearing
after a period of weeks and state that it did not look like
that last time. However, it is then impossible to quantify
the scope and magnitude of the change.
New tooth profiles are outwardly curved or convex
(Figure 14). Worn tooth profiles are recessed or concave. A Figure 15. CAD plot comparison. (Photo courtesy of The Falk
simple straight edge can be placed against the tooth pro- Corp., Milwaukee, WI.)
file to determine if the profile is convex or concave (Figure
14). Some sites have even taken feeler gauge measure-
ments to more accurately determine the magnitude of
wear.
A more sophisticated method than using a straight
edge is to use a CAD plot of the original tooth form. A
scale CAD drawing can be plotted of the original tooth
profile. This tooth profile is then cut out or copied
onto an overhead and fitted against the tooth (Figure
15). Gaps can be easily identified providing a clear
visual indication of a worn tooth profile.
An even more accurate method is the use of tooth
moulds. Tooth moulds provide the most positive
method of monitoring wear. If a baseline mould is
taken when the gearing is new, it can then be used to
check the tooth condition throughout the life of the
gearing. Moulds can be taken at any time to provide a
very accurate representation of the tooth condition. Figure 16. Worn tooth.
Of course, taking tooth moulds involves significantly
more time than taking digital photographs. much tooth wear is too much? It has been previously
Oil sample analysis is a very valuable tool for all stated that the exact moment cannot be predicted
types of machinery. While it can be helpful for appli- when tooth failure will occur. While this is true, it has
cations with sumps (e.g. systems with oiling pinions), been the authors experience that teeth that have
many open gearing applications apply lubricant with worn through one-half the original top land thickness
an intermittent spray system. Oil sample analysis is (Figure 16) should be replaced as soon as possible.
therefore not possible with these systems. When teeth are worn half-way through the top
Now to answer the ultimate question posed, how land thickness, the profiles will have become severely
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worn (Figures 3 and 9). These profiles no longer have catastrophic failure. This effectively halves the service
the original involute form. This creates mesh incom- life of a very valuable pinion or gear.
patibilities resulting in vibration, noise and very high
localised stresses. Conclusion
Teeth worn half-way through the top land are also There are many types and causes of girth gearing tooth
subject to catastrophic tooth breakage. If one-half of wear. It is critical to prevent or at least minimise tooth wear
a tooth has been worn away, this means that one-half to ensure a long, trouble free service life. Once wear is
of the tooth support is also gone. Any misalignment, detected, little can be done to correct it. The effects of
impact loads, or high starting loads could tear the wear can be minimised with a proactive assessment and
teeth completely off. Because of this, wear beyond monitoring program._____________________
one-half of the top land thickness jeopardises the abil-
ity to reverse the gearing to use the unworn tooth
References
1. ANSI/AGMA 1010-E95, "Appearance of Gear Teeth - Terminology
flank. The reduced support increases the stress and of Wear and Failure", published by the American Gear
deflection of the tooth, increasing the probability of Manufacturers Association, Virginia, USA

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