On the Condition Monitoring of Worm Gears

There has been fairly little research into the condition monitoring of worm gears, although gears of this type have been attached to critical machines in various fields of industry and significant production losses may arise from their breakdowns. Literature has been published on the designing of worm gears but information is rarely provided on fault diagnostics concerning these gears, especially with regard to real-life industrial applications. Some research has been carried out with laboratory-scale test rigs. There is thus an evident need to develop the condition monitoring of worm gears as a basic form of research, but especially to meet the requirements of different fields of industry. This paper gathers together the general information and research reports available on worm gears. Experiences gained from the use of oil analysis and vibration analysis in diagnosing the condition of machines with worm gears are presented in the form of case studies carried in industry. Our experiences of industrial machines with worm gears cover machines employed in cable manufacturing and talc production. We have been monitoring pressers in a cable-manufacturing factory by means of vibration analysis and wear metal analysis of oils for several years now. Condition monitoring data for certain talc agglomerating machines in a talc factory have been gathered during the past few years by means of an oil analysis, and some vibration monitoring data have also been collected. Four similar machines were used here and compared with each other in order to point out similarities and dissimilarities in their behaviour. The aims of this study were to find suitable condition monitoring methods for different machine types all using worm gears and to choose the most sensitive features for routine use in the maintenance of such machines in future. Another aim was to find out if it is possible to propose any common recommendations for the condition monitoring of worm gears.