Pictures of Gear Tooth Failure Modes

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This document describes common types of gear tooth failure modes and their appearance.

Gear tooth failure modes and wear can be categorized as “mild”, “moderate’ or “severe” depending on the amount of material displaced from the tooth surface. The rate of the tooth surface deterioration depends on many factors (load, alignment, temperature, speed, lubrication, gear material, surface finish, heat treat, vibration, ect.) and is strictly related to a particular failure mode.

When photographing gear teeth a special attention must be paid to the way a light source is utilized, especially when taking macro shots.

For all the macro pictures different lighting conditions have been employed in order to emphasize the characteristic features of different wear modes.  

For detailed description of the different gear tooth failure modes refer to AGMA 1010-E95

Gear Tooth Wear and Failure Modes Terminology