Cluster 04 · 5 articles planned · 5 published
Failure Analysis
Why couplings fail and how to diagnose it
Every competitor writes about coupling types. Almost nobody publishes what an actual failed coupling looks like, with the service history and root cause attached. This cluster is built around real failure evidence rather than generic wear-mechanism diagrams.
Diagnosis starts with pattern recognition: tooth wear tells a different story depending on whether it is uniform, one-sided or pitted; lubrication failure leaves signatures distinct from mechanical misalignment damage; fretting corrosion looks like nothing else once you know what to look for. Reading the pattern correctly is faster and cheaper than replacing a coupling on suspicion alone.
Each article works from photographed failures with the service history and root cause stated, closing with a diagnostic checklist for narrowing down what is happening on your machine before it is stripped down.
Articles in this cluster
4 min read
Tooth wear
Uniform, one-sided and pitted wear patterns photographed on returned units, and what each pattern indicates about service conditions.
4 min read
Lubrication failure
Grease breakdown and contamination cases, and how to distinguish a lubrication failure from a mechanical one by inspection.
4 min read
Misalignment damage
The wear signatures that specifically indicate excess misalignment rather than general wear or overload.
4 min read
Fretting corrosion
The mechanism behind fretting at a bore or keyway fit, and how to recognise it before it propagates into a crack.
4 min read
Diagnostic checklist
A decision-tree checklist for identifying the likely failure mode before the coupling is stripped down.