What Are The Common Faults of Worm Gear And Worm Gear Reducers?

During the long-term operation of worm gear and worm gear reducers, the common faults mainly concentrate on overheating, wear, oil leakage, bearing damage, and abnormal vibration/noise. The specific fault phenomena and causes are as follows:

1. Overheating and oil leakage

Fault phenomenon: The temperature rises abnormally during operation, and the joint surface leaks oil or seeps oil.

Common causes: Sliding friction generates a large amount of heat, causing thermal expansion and generating gaps at the joint surface; excessive or insufficient oil quantity, deteriorated oil quality; unreasonable material selection or large friction coefficient of the meshing surface; poor assembly quality or poor heat dissipation in the operating environment.

2. Wear of the worm

Fault phenomenon: The worm gear tooth surface wears out rapidly, and even develops pitting or breaks, resulting in a decrease in transmission accuracy.

Common causes: The worm continuously rubs against the worm gear like a "scraping tool"; improper equipment selection leads to long-term overloading operation; insufficient oil quantity or improper lubrication method; poor wear resistance of the material or unreasonable assembly clearance.

3. Bearing damage of the worm gear

Fault phenomenon: The bearing rusts, corrodes, or wears out during operation, accompanied by abnormal noise, and in severe cases, the shaft gets stuck.

Common causes: Temperature changes during start-stop of the reducer cause the gear oil to condense and mix with the oil, resulting in rusting of the bearing; poor quality of the bearing or improper assembly process (such as improper clearance adjustment); poor lubrication leading to dry friction.

4. Wear of the small helical gears for transmission (commonly seen in vertical installation)

Fault phenomenon: The gear surface is worn and pitted, and the noise increases during startup or operation.

Common causes: Vertical installation is prone to oil loss, resulting in the gear not receiving effective lubrication during startup, causing dry friction; improper selection of lubricating oil or insufficient addition.

5. Abnormal vibration and noise

Fault phenomenon: The equipment vibrates excessively and emits abnormal noise during operation.

Common causes: Poor fixation of the equipment or large coaxiality deviation during installation; excessive or poor meshing clearance between the worm and the worm gear or poor meshing; severe bearing wear; foreign objects getting stuck inside the machine.

6. Low transmission efficiency or jamming

Fault phenomenon: The reducer is difficult to rotate, the output torque decreases, or it cannot rotate at all.

Common causes: Severe wear or jamming of internal components (such as severe wear of the tooth surface, bearing jamming); severe lack of lubrication resulting in dry friction between metals; accumulation of dirt or foreign objects getting stuck inside the machine.

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