There are 4 common failure modes of wire drawing machine reducers. Early prediction can avoid full line shutdown.

1. Tooth surface wear and gluing

Under the severe impact conditions of wire drawing load, if the reducer is poorly lubricated (such as insufficient lubricating oil, deteriorated oil quality or containing impurities), an effective oil film will not be formed between the sliding surfaces of the gears, resulting in dry friction. This will aggravate the friction loss of tooth surface materials and cause serious mechanical wear; in extreme cases, it may even cause tooth surface gluing, seriously affecting transmission accuracy.

2. Tooth surface fatigue spalling (pitting corrosion)

The wire drawing machine has been subjected to heavy loads and impacts for a long time. When the gears work under conditions close to or exceeding the contact stress determined by the design, contact fatigue is easily caused. Repeated contact stress will cause fatigue cracks on the tooth surface or subsurface, which will cause the tooth surface material to flake off (i.e. macro pitting or spalling), which is one of the common damage forms of hard tooth surface gears.

3. Broken gear teeth (broken teeth)

Frequent starts and stops and torque fluctuations of the wire drawing machine will produce huge bending stress and impact load. If the strength and toughness of the gear material itself are insufficient, or there is stress concentration in the shaft shoulder, keyway, etc., the gear will produce fatigue cracks under long-term alternating stress. When the crack expands to a critical point, it will cause instantaneous tooth breakage and cause the equipment to shut down suddenly.

4. Failure of bearings and seals

As key components of support and sealing, damage to bearings and seals will also cause the reducer to become paralyzed. If there is an error in the installation coaxiality, insufficient lubrication or overload, fatigue peeling or burns will easily occur inside the bearing. At the same time, under high temperature, dust intrusion or long-term operation, the sealing lip is prone to aging and wear, resulting in lubricating oil leakage. This will not only cause the internal lubrication to further deteriorate, but also pollute the working environment of the wire drawing machine.

Suggestions for predicting in advance:

In order to avoid shutdown of the whole line, it is recommended to pay attention to early fault signals such as abnormal noise, abnormal vibration, excessive temperature and oil leakage of the reducer in daily operation. Through regular visual inspection, temperature monitoring and vibration analysis, potential risks such as gear wear, bearing damage or poor lubrication can be detected early, so that targeted maintenance can be carried out before failure occurs.