Failure investigation of crown wheel and pinion

The crown wheel and pinion are the critical components in the transmission system of an automobile. Failure of these components has drastic effect on the vehicular movement. This in turn leads to increased downtime for repairs. The cost of these components adds to the criticality in addition to its function. A fractured gear was subjected to detailed analysis using standard metallurgical techniques to identify the cause for failure. The study concludes that the failure is due to the compromise made in raw material composition by the manufacturer, which is evident by the presence of high manganese content and non-existence of nickel and molybdenum. This resulted in high core hardness (458 HV) leading to premature failure of the vital component of transmission system in a vehicle.