Gear Joint

Gear Joint

Are You At Risk Of Gear Coupling Failures?

Gear couplings are mechanical devices used to join shafts of two different machines. Commercial gear couplings are best for more torque transferring due to their size. Gear couplings are widely used in high speed applications for their high load transmitting capacity in applications that require high torque capacity.

 

Gear couplings have two shaft hubs with external teeth that are connected with sleeve of two pieces containing internal teeth. A gear coupling works like flexible spline that has sleeves and hubs moving together. Proper lubrication of the right type is required to help the gear couplings work properly.

 

Since, gear couplings are mechanical devices; they are subjected to failures as well. So, here we will discuss the different causes of failures of gear couplings:

 

Failures due to lubrication

 

Adequate maintenance of lubrication is extremely important for the proper working of gear couplings. It has been found that the lack of lubrication is the primary cause of failure of gear couplings.

 

When there is loss of lubrication between the external and internal teeth, the surface rubbing against each other leads to breakage of small metal particles. In some rare cases, you can also find fretting corrosion. As the gear continues to operate without proper lubrication, it leads to a worn out surface where 70% of teeth are worn out. If the wear is stopped immediately, the teeth will suffer severe damage. Lack of lubrication is often the result of a damaged gasket or seal, a lost lube plug and insufficient lube filing.

 

Hub fractures

 

Gear couplings can also fail due to failure of hubs due to a blend of hoop stress produced by interference fit and high tension stress. To prevent hub fractures, you need to select couplings with the service factor in mind according to the motor capacity. You should also consider the brake involved and make it a point to select a coupling based on brake capacity.

 

Misalignment wear

 

Gear couplings operating under severe misalignment will result in wearing of teeth. Couplings are designed in such a way that it can accommodate alignment limits without metal to metal contact in seal area. Very often, lube leakage at the seal results in misalignment.

 

Sleeve seal end ring failures

 

This type of failure results from heavy loads imposed on sleeve seal cage. This kind of failure may be a result of radial flexing from increased misalignment or axial contact because of improper gap setting or hub axial float.

 

Flange fastener failures

 

This is another cause of failure that needs to be taken care of. Flange fastener failure can be a result of insufficient fastener tightening torque, some reverse load that have exceeded the flange joint capacity and system torsional vibration.

 

These are some of the main types of failures that will ultimately affect the working of your machine. So, to make the couplings work properly, you need to maintain the device properly.

About the Author

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what would cause gear noise in a 1999 hyundia with automatic transmission.?

the noise is relative to speed and does not matter gear position or even costing in neutral is the same.

what component or part would cause this gear noise as you would think if car is in neutral coasting there should be no gears turning?

have had the wheel bearings replaced and cv joints are ok.

Once you disengage the transmission from engine (shifting in neutral) there should be no noise if the noise is caused by any mechanical component. I don't see how the noise is still there. Once disconnected, the internal components are not turning and are not in load anymore. I still believe its a mechanical problem related to one of the wheel. The question is which one? This is what you will have to figure out. If the intensity of the noise increasing with the speed, this indicates clearly that its got something to do with rotation of the wheel. Noise are traveling throughout the body and could be tricky to identify it. Get a second opinion from a different mechanic if you are not satisfied with previous results.

Is the noise like a hauling, growling, squealing (high or low pitch) or humming? If you can describe better, I might be able to tell you what exactly might be.

CATIA v5 Kinematics Simulation Animation Gear Joint