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Gear Failure

The high speed reduction gear of a mill turbine failed due to insufficient lubrication pressure. An investigation found that the mechanical oil pump's driving pinion was broken, but it continued operating due to a lock nut. The turbine was operating below its minimum safe speed, so the auxiliary turbo pump was used instead of the mechanical pump to avoid shutdowns from low pressure. However, the turbo pump could not provide enough flow to properly lubricate both the throttle valve and reduction gear. This led to metal-to-metal contact in the gear due to the lack of an oil film. The failure highlighted the importance of operating machines as designed and maintaining proper lubrication pressures.

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Sheri Khoso
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112 views

Gear Failure

The high speed reduction gear of a mill turbine failed due to insufficient lubrication pressure. An investigation found that the mechanical oil pump's driving pinion was broken, but it continued operating due to a lock nut. The turbine was operating below its minimum safe speed, so the auxiliary turbo pump was used instead of the mechanical pump to avoid shutdowns from low pressure. However, the turbo pump could not provide enough flow to properly lubricate both the throttle valve and reduction gear. This led to metal-to-metal contact in the gear due to the lack of an oil film. The failure highlighted the importance of operating machines as designed and maintaining proper lubrication pressures.

Uploaded by

Sheri Khoso
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ROOT CAUSE FAILURE

ANALYSIS
OF
HIGH SPEED GEAR
(A case study)
Sequence of the paper
• Incident
• Physical analysis
• Maintenance status
• Operational status
• Failure possibilities
• Helical gear and its advantages
• Oil circuit and oil function in high
speed gears
• Factuality of gear failure
• Learning curve
Incident
• High speed reduction gear of Mill # 3 turbine 400 k.w power
made by KKK Germany damaged at the end of the crushing
season 2017-18.
• Physical analysis show the metal to metal contact in
absence of the oil film.
• Sunk key of the mechanical oil pump found broken but the
mechanical pump was working due to the lock nut grip on the
driving wheel.
• How this incident occured in the presence of low oil pressure
safeties, this is investigated in the following proceeding.
Physical analysis of the
metal

Deformed metal
Physical analysis of the
Broken pinion
metal

Damaged pinion teeth


Mechanical pump driving wheel
Maintenance status of the gear:

• Back lash of the gear 0.2 mm


• End play of the gear 0.15 mm
• Bearing clearance 0.15 mm
Backlash
“The maximum distance or angle through which any part of
a mechanical system may be moved in one direction without
applying appreciable force or motion to the next part in
mechanical sequence",
End play

End play is the total distance the shaft can move between the
two thrust bearings. The end play allows room for the formation of
an oil film, misalignment, and thermal expansion of the bearing
components.
Bearing clearance
• Bearing clearance is essential to form oil film between
the surfaces, where the shaft sink in 50 percent of the
bearing diameteral clearance.
• Journal bearing clearance is 1.5 mils-per-inch of journal
diameter.
• 1mil = 0.001 mm
Operational status

• Mill operating @ of 3200 TCD (Capacity 4000 TCD)


• Due to low turbine speed turbo pump was operated to
compensate the low oil pressure
• The bearing lubrication pressure was maintained at 1.5
bar and the throttle valve control pressure was 10 bar.
• Temperature and other operational parameters were
maintained
High speed gears failure
• Increase of noise or vibration
• Excessive increase in temperature
• Increase of backlash
• Low viscosity lubricant
• The load is over large
• Excessive end play and bearing clearance
Introduction - high speed gears
• Gearing can change the speed, torque and direction of
motion from a drive source.
• Typically, the torque increases in direct proportion to the
reduction of rotations per unit of time
• The term “speed reducer” is applicable to the units
operating at pinion speeds below 3,600 rpm or pitch-line
velocities below 1500 M/m
• Reducers operating at speeds higher than these are called
high-speed units. “American
gear manufacturing association”
Advantages of helical gears
Gear teeth contact is gradual, beginning at one end of the
tooth, and staying in contact with the gear, which rotates until
full contact is achieved. The typical helix angle ranges from 15
to 30 degrees. On the other hand, the thrust load varies in direct
proportion to the magnitude of the tangent of the helix angle.
Advantages of helical gears

Thrust
Helix angle
15 ͦ
Rotation Rotation
Advantages of helical gears
• The angled teeth work more gradually, allowing for
smoother and more silent gear operation when
compared to spur gears.
• Helical gears last longer and are ideal for high-load
applications, since they have a higher amount of teeth in
contact.
• Load is at all times distributed among several axes,
which produces less wear.
Advantages of helical gears

Helix angle
15 ͦ
Oil circuit
Oil Auxiliary
Filter Oil cooler oil pump
Turbo oil pump

Emergency ON
OFF Governor
Distributor trip

Mechanical oil Throttle


Pressure pump valve
spray for Low pressure
gears trip

Bearings
lubrication
Sump tank
Factuality of failure
4000 TCD capacity plant was being operated on 3200 TCD,
The turbine speed was 930 rpm, slightly below the lowest
permissible speed i-e 950 rpm, below this limit, the low
pressure safety shut-off the turbine. To avoid low lubrication
pressure tripping, Turbo auxiliary pump was operated,
designed for emergency shut off when both mechanical and
auxiliary pumps are not possible to be operated.
Factuality of failure
Turbo lubrication pump supplies oil to the main oil
distributor, from distributor one channel supply oil to the dial
gauge and another one to throttle valve to control the turbine
speed, both the10 mm diameter channels receiving enough
quantity of oil and are closed loops. The high speed reduction
gear oil supply channel is of 6 mm diameter open end
channel, receiving oil less than reduction gear requirement.
Factuality of failure
High speed reduction gear lubrication requirement is 392
ml/s, mechanical pump provides oil to the reduction gear
@ 562 ml/s through 12 mm diameter channel. While the
turbo auxiliary pump supply 250 ml/s oil to the reduction
gear which is too less to energize both the oil loops of high
speed reduction gear.
Oil channels in distributor
Mechanical oil pump
ᶲ 10 mm to Throttle ᶲ 12 mm to gear
valve Flow rate
Pressure 10 bar 562 ml/s

ᶲ 10 mm to Pressure
ᶲ 5mm to gear
gauge
Flow rate 250 ml/s
Pressure 2 bar

Turbo auxiliary
oil pump
Oil channels in distributor

Throttle valve oil channel

Reduction gear oil channel


Reduction gear’s oil circuit
Main functions of the lubricant in a reduction gear is:
1. Pressure lubrication of the gears through 1 mm diameter
3 x nozzles.
2. Bearings lubrication through 5 mm diameter 4 x port.
In case of insufficient lubrication the lubricant rushes
towards the low pressure area i-e bearing lubrication.
Reduction gear’s oil circuit

Gear pressure lubrication nozzles

Bearing lubrication circuit


Learning curve
• Turbo pump should be operated when the machine is shut
off, as it mainly lubricates the gear bearings, the oil
quantity is insufficient for the pressure lubrication of the
gear teeth
• Turbine and its accessories should be operated / kept
functional as per designed parameters.
• Machines operation as per operating manual is safe and
result oriented
Questions?

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