J Fail. Anal. and Preven.
(2011) 11:700–704
DOI 10.1007/s11668-011-9506-4
TECHNICAL ARTICLE—PEER-REVIEWED
Investigation of Conveyor Pulley Shaft Failures
D. Satish Kumar • Pradeep Agarwal •
V. Jagdeesh • Madhu Ranjan
Submitted: 22 March 2011 / in revised form: 15 July 2011 / Published online: 1 September 2011
Ó ASM International 2011
Abstract The cause for failures of shafts in a conveyor
pulley in iron-making unit at JSW Steel has been investi-
gated. Visual, metallographic, chemical, and fractographic
studies were carried out in this study. Fracture studies of
the shaft revealed shear failure because of overload.
Detailed investigation revealed that the source of overload
and cause of failure to be the end disk of the pulley drum,
which is not considered a critical component. The disk
material complies with the required material specification
but failed because of changes in metallurgical character-
istics during welding. Severe centerline segregation in the
end disk drastically reduced its strength and service life,
leading to premature failures. It was found that end disk
welding failures led to overloaded bending stresses,
thereby causing an imbalance in the shaft rotation and
leading to failure.
Keywords Shaft failure
End disk

Centerline segregation
Introduction
Conveyor belts have many applications in today’s manu-
facturing industries. Bulk material handling, distribution,
and other material transportation needs are carried out
using conveyor belts. Hence, conveying systems become
one of the most critical components for continuous and
trouble-free operation in many industries. Any stoppage in
conveyor operation may result in loss of production. It
D. S. Kumar (&)
P. Agarwal
V. Jagdeesh
M. Ranjan
JSW Steel Ltd—R&D and SS, Toranagallu Dist, Bellary
583275, Karnataka, India
e-mail: satishkumar.dabbiru@jsw.in
123
therefore becomes important to conduct detailed investi-
gations of any failure in a conveyor system to avoid
repetition of the failure process. The conveyor pulley
assembly is an integral structure that relies on the pulley
and shaft working and functioning together. A conveyor
system consists of a belt and two or more pulleys, with a
continuous loop of material that rotates about them. The
pulleys are powered to move the belt and the material on it.
JSW Steel is a 7-mtpa integrated steel plant (one of the
largest in India) and utilizes a series of conveying systems
for its material transfer. The most common defect in such
system is the pulley shaft failure which may arise from
several reasons. The present investigation concerned
repeated shaft failures in the raw material-conveying sys-
tem of the iron-making units.
Visual Inspection
Shaft failures at raw material conveyor pulley at the iron-
making unit (Fig. 1) were reported and then investigated in
this failure analysis. It was observed that frequency of
failures had increased in recent past and, partially because
of this increase, a detailed investigation of the failures was
made. The reported pulleys are of drum type (Fig. 2) with
the central shaft supported by end disks.
Shaft has been found broken inside the drum close to the
end disk. The welded joint between the end disk and hub
was also found broken. This has been found in all the
failures in the recent past. Figure 3 shows the broken
pulley and the shaft assembly and also shows the broken
weld joint. The frequent failure of the shaft was analyzed
from the point of view of vibration and the material failure.
A visual inspection of the failed shaft indicates that it has
failed in the brittle mode. There is no shear lip around the
J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2011) 11:700–704 701

periphery of the fracture, nor is there any evidence of
necking. In Addition, the fracture surface is normal to the
axis of the shaft and is consistent with torsional shear
overload failure [1]. There is evidence of fatigue on the
fracture surface, which reduced the shaft cross section until
it failed by overload. However, no significant vibrations
were reported during its operation before the failure, sug-
gesting that the fatigue was due to bending rather than
vibratory stresses. A detailed examination of the pulley
reveals no stress marks or damage on the end disk.
However, the end disk welding joint failure raised some
suspicion because of the presence of cracks along the disk
thickness in the weld region. Therefore, in the present
investigation, metallurgical and fractography details of
both the shaft and the end disk were analyzed.
Chemical Analysis
The chemical analysis of the shaft material and the end
disk material was carried out using optical emission spec-
troscopy. The technology specifications recommend a
particular grade of steel for shaft material and the end plate
material. The chemical compositions of the shaft and end
plate are compared with respective standard specifications
shown in Table 1. Compositions of the materials are well
within the specifications, and hence the possibility of
compositional mismatch is ruled out.

Hardness Study

The samples collected from the broken shaft and the end
disk were tested for hardness. Hardness measurements of
the shaft and end disk materials were made on the Rock-
Fig. 1 Pulley in operation at iron-making unit well scale, which were 90 HRB on the shaft and 79 HRB

Table 1 Comparison with specifications

Shaft End-disk
Specification Composition Specification Composition

C, % 0.4–0.45 0.44 0.22 (max) 0.150

Mn, % 0.05–0.35 0.25 1.5 (max) 0.950
Si, % 0.7–0.9 0.9 0.045 (max) 0.025
P, % \0.06 0.05 0.045 (max) 0.044
S, % \0.06 0.015 0.4 (max) 0.120
CE





0.41 (max) 0.330
Fig. 2 Drum pulley

Fig. 3 Failed pulley and shaft

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on the end disk. These values are compatible with the
standard specifications.
Fractography
The fractured surface of the shafts were analyzed and the
mode of failure ascertained. However, root cause analysis
has led the investigation to shift the focus to the other
adjoining components of the assembly to establish the
source of increased stresses that lead to overload fracture.
Fractographies of the shaft and the end disk are discussed
below.
Shaft
The fracture surfaces of the failed components were stud-
ied under optical and scanning electron microscopy.
Fracture surface at the crack initiation region shows fea-
tures typical of brittle failures as shown in Figs. 4 and 5.
Fig. 4 Fractography
Fig. 5 Fractured surface
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J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2011) 11:700–704
Visual inspection indicates prime failure mode to be of
brittle nature. Flat surface is consistent with shear failure
due to sudden overload. Intergranular fracture features are
indicative of a high hardness, brittle condition as expected
for the shaft material [2]. The fracture surface had four
distinct regions, marked as 1, 2, 3, and 4 as shown in
Fig. 4. A close-up view of the fractured input shaft shows
torsional overload marks (1), indicating typical rotating
bending failure. Point (2) indicates the approximate frac-
ture initiation site. The failure propagated across the
fatigue zone (3), and then very rapidly crossed the final
fracture zone (4). The fracture had originated before at
point 2 in well-rubbed fatigue zone and penetrated into
80% of the cross section of the shaft before final fast
fracture. The fast fracture zone has carried the load in the
instant before the part breaks. The size of the fast fracture
zone indicates that overload took place at a load that was
relatively low compared to the load-carrying capacity of
the original shaft. No metallurgical abnormality was found
in the shaft, and the shaft material matches well with the
specification. From these observations, it is evident that the
shaft has failed after a fatigue crack had propagated over
80% of the cross section; thus, the load on the shaft was
never excessive but was sufficient to cause fatigue crack
initiation and growth.
End Disk
Visual inspection of the end disk shows large cracks at the
center of the end disk plate (Fig. 6). These cracks had
apparently been present before the shaft failure occurred.
The presence of such cracks makes welding joints weak and
susceptible to failure. Cross-sectional examination of these
cracks in the end disk shows opening in plate along its
central plane adjacent to the weld zone. Opening up of the
plate at the center takes place during welding in the pres-
ence of casting abnormality. Such phenomenon is
commonly observed in these grades of steel if high cen-
terline segregation has occurred [3]. No other source of
crack initiation can be traced in the sample. End disk failure
normally occurs through cyclic fatigue failure of the weld
between the hub and the end disk in welded-in hub designs.
In the present case, the failure is expected to have initiated
within the heat-affected zone generated during welding.
The heat-affected zone is the one where the mechanical
properties and microstructure are altered by the welding
process. The properties are altered to the extent that these
zones become the weak link in the pulley assembly and
subjected to fatigue failure during operation. The presence
of centerline segregation in the end disk makes it more
prone to failure as is observed in the present case.
Centerline segregation is a result of improper casting
conditions in the continuous casting machine. Steel plates
J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2011) 11:700–704
Fig. 6 Cracks in end disk plate
Fig. 7 Cross-sectional view of
the failed end disk plate
with high centerline segregation should not be used for
bending, welding, and heat-treatment applications. End
disk failure results in increased loads on the shaft by
increasing pulley stress, shaft stress, and shaft deflection.
The increase in load, although not excessive, was sufficient
to cause fatigue crack initiation and was the basic cause of
the shaft failure.
Detailed analysis of the end plate along the cross section
shows propagated cracks deep along the centerline (Fig. 7).
This confirms the pre-existing cracks which might have
developed during welding.
Microstructural Study
A metallographic section was prepared in a plane perpen-
dicular to the crack surface in the end disk (Fig. 8a).
Samples were observed under optical microscope and SEM
for detailed investigation. Polished sample (Fig. 8b) shows
elongated crack at the center with no other severe abnor-
mality. Microstructure (950) was examined after Nital 5%
etch and shows the typical ferritic-perlitic normalized
medium carbon steel structure with a banded morphology
and centerline segregation showing crack propagation
along that line (Fig. 8c). Cracks shown in the as-polished
surface are growing from the weld to the deep inner region,
following a central path. On the basis of these results, it can
703
be concluded that these cracks were formed during the
thermal cycle of welding, by means of a liquation cracking
mechanism [4].
The SEM analysis (Fig. 8d) also confirms opening along
the centerline due to segregation. EDS analysis shows the
presence of oxide impurities (Al2O3, SiO2, etc.) along the
centerline (Fig. 9). Banded nature of the microstructure
and centerline segregation are thought to have contributed
to the early failures of the end disk.
The cracks present in the weld of heat-affected zone
experienced mechanical stress during rotating operation,
leading to a stable growth (low cycle fatigue) deep into the
plate. When the combination of crack size and stress
reached a critical value, the hub and end-plate welding
failed. Failure of the end disk-hub welding supporting the
shaft caused misalignment. The end disk failure also led to
vibration and finally resulted in a fatigue failure of the
shaft. It is therefore concluded that the end-disk welding
failed first and imparted increased bending stresses on the
shaft, resulting in its failure.
Corrective Actions
The specifications for end disk were made stringent
(especially when used for welding critical joints) with the
introduction of centerline segregation rating (B1). Pulley
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704 J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2011) 11:700–704

Fig. 8 Microstructural
examination of the failed end
disk plate. Centre opening: (a)
visual inspection, (b) as
polished (911), (c) etched
(950), (d) segregation (91,300)

Fig. 9 SEM/EDS analysis of

center segregation

manufacturers were made aware of the failure analysis, and failures. This investigation led to the change of the metal-
it was recommended that they fabricate end disk through lurgical specifications for the end disk material and
proper selection of hot-rolled plates compatible with mitigated the problem.
welding techniques.

Conclusions References

The present investigation shows a peculiar case of shaft
failures arising due to improper selection of end disk
materials. Based on investigations carried out in the labo-
ratory, the cause of the shaft failure has been attributed to
the metallurgical properties of the end disk material, a part
which was not considered critical before this evaluation.
The material used for end disk was found to have severe
centerline segregation, which resulted in premature welding
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2. Sachs, N.: Failure analysis of mechanical components. Mainte-
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3. Moore, J.J., Shah, N.A.: A metallographic study of centreline
segregation in high carbon steel billets. Microstruct. Sci. 11, 163–
192 (1983)
4. Hsieh, R.-I., Wang, S.-C., Liou, H.-Y.: A study on the formation of
liquation cracks in the weld heat-affected zone of HY-80 quenched
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