Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100

www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure analysis of an idler gear of diesel engine gearbox

Zhiwei Yu *, Xiaolei Xu
Electromechanics and Material Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, PR China

Received 24 June 2005; accepted 14 July 2005

Available online 16 September 2005

Abstract

A failure investigation has been conducted on an idler gear of diesel-engine gearbox used in a truck, which is made
from 20CrMnTi steel. The gear was plasma-carburized. The inner circle is splined. The crack origin zone is situated at
the root fillet location of the weld region of the splined inner circle. The macro-fracture surfaces show brittle cracking
characteristics and the micro-fracture exhibits intergranular cracking features. The delayed brittle fracture is the dom-
inant failure mechanism of the idle gear. The detailed metallurgical examinations on the carburized layer and the core
zone were conducted. The failure causes were assessed.
Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Gear; Intergranular fracture; Carburized layer; Failure analysis

1. Introduction

The fracture of an idler gear of the diesel engine gearbox was reported from a gearbox manufacture
plant. The failed idler gear is made of 20CrMnTi steel. The gear presents involute helical teeth and its inner
circle is splined (Fig. 1). The gear was plasma-carburized at 920 °C, then quenched at 850 °C. The splined
inner circle is interference fitted with spline shaft and the amount of the interference fitting is about 0.01–
0.05 mm. The flank of the splined inner circle was welded by argon arc after fitting, then tempered 2 h at
160 °C. The original distance of the teeth flank and the spline flank is specified to be 3.0 mm. It should be
mentioned that the local flank zone of the splined inner circle is specified to be prevented from carburizing
to facilitate weld process (Fig. 1). The fracture of the idler gear took place after welding and tempering.
This paper describes the detailed metallurgical investigation on the failed gear and a careful fracto-
graphic study. The possible failure reasons were assessed.

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0411 84729613; fax: +86 0411 84728670.
E-mail address: zhiweiyu@newmail.dlmu.edu.cn (Z.W. Yu).

1350-6307/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2005.07.015
 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100 1093

Fig. 1. Failed gear.

2. Experiment methods

The chemical composition of the failed gear was analyzed by spectroscopy chemical analysis. The micro-
structures of the gear material and the carburized layer or hardened layer in various regions were observed
by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on a Philips XL-30 scanning electron microscope. Macrohardness
of the gear material and the surface hardness (HRC) of the gear carburized were conducted. Microhardness
profiles from the surface to the interior in different regions were made on a MH-6 Vikers meter with a load
of 1000 g to determine the depth of the carburized layer. According to the Chinese standard (GB 9450) [1]
when the hardness value of the position measured is equal to HV550, the depth from the position to the
surface is defined as the carburized layer depth. The carburized layer depth of 0.90–1.30 mm is demanded.

3. Results

3.1. Visual examination

The failed gear is shown in Fig. 1. It can be seen that there are two fractures (A and B). The connected
line between both fractures is through the centre of the gear. Visual observations on both fracture surfaces
reveal that the fracture surfaces are smooth and no obvious plastic deformation can be observed. Macro-
graphs of fractures A and B are shown in Fig. 2, which exhibits similar features. Bending radiative patterns
appear on the fractures A and B, the weld zone being as the centre of the radiative origin. The cracks prop-
agated along the axial direction after initiating. It is suggested that the fracture attributes to the brittle
cracking. According to the path of the crack propagation, the crack origin zones of the fractures A and
B are situated at the root fillet location of weld region of the splined inner circle. A radial crack appears
at the groove of the tooth flank close to the fracture A (shown by arrow in Fig. 1). The radial crack is
throughout the full tooth flank (Fig. 3). The width of the crack at the root end is 0.03 mm, but it is
0.01 mm at the other end. It is suggested that the radial micro-crack propagated from the root toward
the centre of the gear.
It should be noted that the crack origin zones of fractures A and B and the radial crack are situated on
the same side of the gear. The detailed observation shows that the crack origin plane at the fracture A does
1094 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100

Fig. 2. Macrographs of the fractured surfaces: (a) fracture A; (b) fracture B.

Fig. 3. Morphology of the radial crack.

 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100 1095

not cross the groove of the helical teeth, but the crack origin zone plane of the fracture B crosses the groove
of the helical teeth. It is suggested that the loading area of the crack origin zone of the fracture A is larger
than that of the fracture B. Under the same load condition, the crack of the fracture B had formed before
the crack of the fracture A formed. There is no root transition fillet at the groove of the splined inner circle,
which is a 115° pointed angle (Fig. 4). Additionally, machining surface of the full groove and transition
fillet of the splined inner circle are very rough.
In order to separate the idle gear from the spline shaft, the weld zone must be lathed off. The distance
between the tooth flank and the spline flank was measured as 4.0 mm (specified as 3.0 mm, shown in Fig. 2),
which indicates that about 1.0 mm weld depth was lathed off.
No oxidization colour was observed on the full fracture surfaces. No obvious metallurgical inclusion and
forging defects were found in the crack origin zone.

3.2. Chemical composition of the gear material

Table 1 gives the chemical composition of the failed gear material, compared with the specified chemical
composition of the gear material. It can be seen that the chemical composition of the material for the failed
gear is within the specified range.

3.3. Microstructure examination

Cross-sectional microstructure of the crack origin zone, the splined inner circle, and the helical teeth was
observed by SEM. Observations show that the porous zone of 0.01–0.02 mm can be found on the outer
surface of three zones and the micro-pores distribute along the boundary (Fig. 5(a)). It can be deduced that
the internal oxidation took place on the outer surface of the gear and the splined inner circle. Because the
weld process was performed only in the zone of the spline flank, the internal oxidation is not related to the

Fig. 4. Observation on the groove of the splined inner circle showing the pointed angle at the transition fillet.

Table 1
Chemical composition of the gear material (wt%)
Element C Si Ti Cr Mn S P Fe
Analysed 0.21 0.37 0.10 1.27 1.01 0.03 0.04 Balance
As specified 0.17 0.24 0.20 0.40 0.06 0.12 1.00 1.30 0.80 1.10 60.04 60.04 Balance
1096 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100

Fig. 5. Microstructure of the splined inner circle of the failed gear close to the fracture A: (a) carburized layer (pitch line zone); (b) core
region; (c) weld region.

welding process. It is suggested that the oxidation or decarburization occurred during the carburizing
process.
The microstructure immediately below oxidation layer is composed of the tempered martensite and re-
tained austenite (Fig. 5(a)), which is a typical carburizing–quenching and tempering morphology. The
microstructure of the core is composed of the tempered martensite (Fig. 5 (b)), which is normal morphology
 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100 1097

of the grade steel. Although weld layer of 1.0 mm was lathed off when separating the gear from the spline
shaft, the hardened weld zone was still observed (Fig. 5(c), which is composed of very fine martensite. It is
important that a coarse martensite zone appears below the hardened weld zone, which should be heat af-
fected zone. The following observation would indicate that the coarse martensite structure corresponds to
the grain size appearing on the intergranular fracture.

3.4. Hardness

The surface hardness and macro-hardness (HRC) of the failed gear material were measured, whose aver-
age values of five readings are listed in Table 2.
The measured hardness values are within the specified range, but they nearly attain to the upper limit
value of the specified.

3.5. Depth of the carburized layer

In order to determine the depth of the carburized layer at various locations of the gear tooth and the
splined inner circle close to the fractures, the hardness profiles from the surface to the interior were per-
formed. The results show that the depth of the carburized layer is thicker in general. The hardness profiles
of the tip tooth and groove zones for the splined inner circle and pith line zone of the helical tooth are
shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that the depth of the carburized layer in tip tooth and groove zones for

Table 2
Hardness
Value (measured) Value (specified)
Surface hardness (HRC) 62.8 58 63
Macrohardness (HRC) 47.0 33 48

900
tip toothregion for the splined
groove region for the splined
800 pitch line region for helical teeth

700
HV1

600
HV550

500

400

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Depth, μm

Fig. 6. Hardness profiles of the different regions.

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Fig. 7. SEM fractographs of the failed gear: (a) covering of the oxides, (b) intergranular fracture.

the splined inner circle attains, respectively, to the 1.50 and 1.64 mm, about 0.2–0.3 mm over the specified
depth (0.9–1.3 mm).

3.6. Fractograph

The fractures A and B were observed by SEM, which exhibit similar characteristics. The crack origin
zone was covered with oxidation layer (Fig. 7(a)). The 2.0 mm region immediately below the hardening
layer of the weld zone exhibits a significant degree of intergranular cracking as seen in Fig. 7(b). The grain
size shown in intergranular fracture just corresponds to the coarse martensite size in heat affected zone.

4. Analysis on failure causes

From the observation and examinations in Section 3, it is inferred that the chemical composition of the
gear material corresponds to 20CrMnTi steel. No obvious metallurgical and forging defects were observed.
Macrohardness of the gear material and surface hardness of the carburized gear are within the range of the
technical demand but the values attain to the specified upper limit value. However, the depth of the carbu-
rized layer is thicker in general. Especially, the depth in tip tooth and groove zones of the splined inner
 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100 1099

circle attain to 1.50–1.64 mm, which are 0.20–0.34 mm over the specified maximum depth (0.9–1.3 mm).
The internal oxidation layer of 0.02 mm appears on the outer surface of the gear. There is no transition
fillet at the root fillet region of the groove of the splined inner circle, which is a pointed angle of 115°.
The main failure causes are concluded as follows:

(1) Internal oxidation. Oxidation or decarburization can change the stress configuration. Because of the
oxidation or decarburization, the surface would bear tensile stress after quenching.
(2) Interference fitting stress between the spline shaft and the splined inner circle. According to the elastic
theory [2], during interference fitting, the circumferential tensile stress on the internal wall of the exter-
nal sleeve (which is the splined inner circle in the present work) would be maximum.
(3) The presence of pointed angle at groove of the splined inner circle. The failure has taken place at
the root fillet region. This is the location, where the tooth bending stress is maximum [3]. The
presence of a pointed angle of 115° at the root fillet of the groove of the splined inner circle must
increase the stress concentration coefficient at transition fillet to amplify the interference fitting
stress.
(4) Hardness and depth of the carburized layer. Higher core hardness, surface hardness of the gear, espe-
cially the deeper depth of the carburized layer must increase the rigidity and the brittleness of the gear
and the splined inner circle surface.
(5) Weld process. When welding was performed under the conditions (1)–(4) described above, the stress
in the weld line zone would be released and the stress would move into heat affected zone. The
coarse martensite in this zone would bear tensile stress so that the intergranular crack would take
place.

5. Conclusion

1. The material of the failed gear is 20CrMnTi, which corresponds to the specified material. No obvious
metallurgical inclusion and forging defects can be observed in the crack origin zone.
2. Two fractures formed on the failed gear, whose macro fractography exhibits brittle fracture character-
istics and micro-fractography shows intergranular fracture features. The fracture mechanism attributes
to the delayed brittle fracture. The crack origin zones of the fractures are situated at the turning angle of
the groove in the welding zone of the splined internal circle.
3. Appearance of the inner oxidation layer about 0.02 mm on the outer surface of the gear and the splined
inner circle, deeper carburized depth, higher core hardness and surface hardness increases the rigidity
and brittleness of the gear and the splined inner circle surface. The presence of the pointed angle in
the transition fillet zone of the groove for the splined inner circle increases the stress concentration under
interference fitting to make weld heat affected zone with coarse martensite bear tensile stress, so that
intergranular fracture occurred.

References

[1] Determination of carburized depth and metallographic examination of carburizing structure, China Standard, GB9450,
1994.
[2] Timoshenko SP, Goodier JN. Theory of elasticity. New York: McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited; 1982.
[3] Jha AK, Diwaker V. Metallurgical analysis of failed gear. Eng Fail Anal 2002(9):359–65.
1100 Z.W. Yu, X.L. Xu / Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 1092–1100

Zhiwei Yu, Professor, is working in Electronicmechanics and Materials Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University. He is mainly
engaging in failure analysis and surface modification of the materials.

Xiaolei Xu, Professor, is working in Electronicmechanics and Materials Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University. She is
mainly engaging in failure analysis and surface modification of the materials.