Successful applications of ndt techniques
to mining equipment maintenance
D.A. Sutcliffe and J.A. Cottier
The importance of ndt to the mining industry is discussed. The use of the magnetic
particle method for testing mining machinery is described together with the need for
back-up ultrasonic testing in particular cases. Examples of testing of components are
used to show how routine ndt can locate a source of trouble and prevent its reoccurrence.
Every time a conveyance is wound in a mine shaft the
safety of the men or materials carried depends upon the
integrity of the winding equipment, as may the ability
to bring to the surface any coal mined. Thus it is not
surprising that the National Coal Board (NCB) has a strong
team of maintenance engineers who make daily examinations
using perhaps the greatest of all ndt devices, the trained
eye. However they are not able to detect hairline cracks
which may be growing in the components as a result of
repeated or cyclic stress applications. Fatigue is the great
problem; a number of mines make over 200 000 winds
each year and it is not difficult to calculate that in this
time the tooth roots on some winding engine gears exper-
ience in excess of 106 reversals of stress. In order to avoid
failure in service the NCB has developed over the years a
number of Codes and Procedures for the routine ndt
examination of cage suspension gear and colliery equipment.
Of necessity the effort available for ndt has been concen-
trated on components that are most likely to cause severe
problems, either from the safety aspect or from the high
replacement time, should failure occur. It is evident that if
high standards of integrity are to be applied to components
in service, then it is necessary to apply demanding standards
to the acceptance of new components. The philosophy
has been to get things right at the design and manufacturing
stage, and the NCB has produced documents giving details
of the levels of ndt required and in some instances limits
of acceptable imperfections. It will be appreciated that
the establishment of satisfactory manufacturing acceptance
criteria is difficult and this subject is under frequent
discussion.
Ideally when a piece of equipment has been put into
service it should be possible to monitor the critical parts
using ndt without any dismantling. This is not always so,
and the NCB adopts all practices from complete dismant-
ling to none at all depending upon the particular circum-
stances. In respect of cage suspension gear the Coal and
other Mines (Shafts, Outlets and Roads) Regulations 1960,
Mr Sutcliffe is Head of the Metallurgy and Materials Branch and Mr
Cottier is Head of the Regional Metallurgical Services of the Mining
Research and Development Establishment, NCB, Burton-on-Trent,
Staffs, UK.
NDT INTERNATIONAL. JUNE 1978 0308-9126/78/1103-0135 ~01.00 © 1978 IPC Business Press
require that certain provisions are made for the frequency
of examination, and removal of the gear from the cage.
To comply with these regulations extra sets of gear are held
by the colliery, so that it is possible to examine one set of
gear whilst the other set is in use. A Code of Practice for
examining cage suspension gear (the fittings that attach
the rope to the cage) at Test Centres has been prepared
by the Board and this has been in operation since 1969.
The Test Centres are fully equipped to carry out all ndt
examination and wear measurements. By adopting this
procedure it is possible to make a rapid changeover to the
new gear at a weekend without making any more calls
on an ndt operator's time during unsocial hours.
Use of magnetic particle techniques
The defects most likely to initiate fatigue failure are on
the surface; because of this and also because of the sim-
plicity of the technique, magnetic particle inspection
was chosen as the ndt method. The current flow technique
may be applied to such components as detaching hooks,
plate links, sockets, pins etc but is not readily applicable
to chains. For chains and small components the induced
magnetic flow technique using a suitable coil was adopted.
The implementation of the procedure raised many problems
on the interpretation of the findings, but most of these
were resolved by discussion and it can be said that the risk
of fatigue failure resulting from material surface imperfec-
tions in cage suspension gear has virtually been eliminated.
Winding gear inspection
Another important item of winding equipment is the winding
engine reduction gearwheel, whilst less critical than the cage
suspension gear from the safety aspect it is of paramount
importance in keeping the mineshaft operating. In the past
there have been a number of failures as a result of lamin-
ations in fabricated gears and severe tearing in cast gears.
The requirements of the NCB specification for winding
engine gears are such that gears are now subjected to a level
of ndt examination during manufacture which guarantees
the integrity of the gear on installation. A record of the
size and locations of significant imperfections is required
135
to be made at the time of the final examination of the new
gear. Routine examinations are made of these gears in situ /
using the current flow method of magnetic particle inspec-
tion. This examination is generally confined to the teeth /
of the spur gear and pinion, whilst on cast gears the areas
around the edges of the arm plates are also examined and
on fabricated gears the rim and boss welds are included.
Over a long period, examination of reduction gears in Signal
obtained
service has highlighted bending fatigue at the tooth root at this
as the most common cause of failure and it is essential that Jposition
this type of failure is detected in its early stages because
replacement gears have long delivery times. When cracking
is found, the metallurgist serving the particular area is
consulted and usually an increased frequency of monitoring
is agreed upon so that the condition of the gear may be
audited whilst the new one is on order. These cracks are
usually parallel to the teeth ie perpendicular to the direction
of principal bending stress, and result from some slight \
misalignment of the tooth.

The value of routine ndt

\
However, all examinations do not follow the same predictable

1
pattern and one of the greatest values of routine ndt exam-
ination is detecting the unusual. Recently a cast gearwheel
that had been in service for approximately five years was
found during routine annual examination to contain 130
cracks in the bottom land of half the teeth. The exam-
ination the previous year had not revealed any defects in
the gear. The rapid onset of cracking, the large number of
cracks, the size and growth of some cracks and the unusual
Fig. 2 Diagrammatic sketch of a steam winding engine crankpin
pattern of the cracking (see Fig. 1) meant that the gear-
wheel had to be taken out of service. The provision of a
gauge rosettes; the results indicated very high residual
suitable alternative placed a great strain on the engineering
tensile stresses which when combined with the service
resources of the area. It was important to know the cause
stresses resulted in failure. Other gears of similar design
of this unusual behaviour and a full metallurgical examin-
and material have been tested using the same technique;
ation was made of the gear. This revealed that none of the
one gear that gave high residual stresses failed in a similar
imperfections detected in the new gear when it was non-
manner as the gear described, whilst another gear that
destructively tested before service appeared to have contri-
gave low residual stress values is still working satisfactorily.
buted to failure. It also revealed that the gear was of
This example emphasizes the value of making routine ndt
satisfactory design, dimensions and materials. The unusual
nature of the pattern of cracking suggested the presence examinations on components, and the dangers that are
of high residual hoop stresses of a tensile nature in the present if attempts are made to predict the performance
rim, and this was confirmed by making residual stress without a full knowledge of the stress situation.
measurements on the bottom lands between three teeth.
These were made using the technique of drilling stress
Ultrasonic testing
relieving holes, with the effect being measured on strain Certain items of equipment such as winding engine dram-
shafts, headgear pulley shafts, steam winding engine crank-
pins and ventilation fanshafts cannot be satifactorily
examined in-situ by the magnetic particle technique.
These items are therefore subjected to ultrasonic exam-.
ination from the ends of the component, and the mag-
netic particle technique is employed to check highly
stressed areas and suspect areas when accessible. Longi-
tudinal (normal) probes are generally used in the 2-5
MHz frequency range. Unidentified signals or unusual
responses are subsequently assessed using suitable angled
probes.

Fig. 1 An unusual pattern of cracking on the b o t t o m lands of
gear teeth as detected using magnetic particle inspection
Practical example
In a recent routine ultrasonic examination of a steam
winding engine crankpin a signal was obtained which co-
incided with a section change in the crankpin. Because
of the shape of the crankpin (see Fig. 2) and the presence
of other items attached to the crankpin, the suspect area

136 N D T I N T E R N A T I O N A L . JUNE 1978


Fig. 3 Subsidiary cracking on the crankpin surface
could only be assessed in detail from one end o f the pin
using ultrasonic examination. The signal was considered
to indicate tlae presence of fatigue cracking in the pin, as
no signals had been reported at this position during the
previous routine examination two years earlier. Arrange-
ments were therefore made to have a new pin manufac-
tured and the existing pin removed.
Following removal, the remains o f the crankpin were sub-
jected to extensive metallurgical examination. Magnetic
particle examination of the suspect section change
showed a surface crack 146 mm long together with some
subsidiary cracking on the shrunk-in surface of the crank-
pin (Fig. 3). Heavy fretting was observed on the shrunk-in
surface o f the pin which ended in the region of the sub-
sidiary cracking. The crack at the section change was
opened and the extent of the cracking is shown in Fig. 4.
The crack was identified as a fatigue crack which had
slowly propagated from the sharp section change between
the shoulder and the shrunk-in section of the pin to a
maximum depth of 22 mm under the action of bending
forces.
Design analysis of the crankpin showed that the nominal
stress on the pin was relatively low 71 MN/m 2 , compared
to the fatigue limit on a machined surface o f this type
of material o f + 232 MN/m 2 . However a stress concentra-
tion factor in excess o f 3.24 would result in the component
having a finite life. The absence of any significant radius
at the section change resulted in a stress concentration
factor certainly in excess of 3, and this together with the
increased stress concentration from the interference fit had
resulted in the initiation o f cracking.
Fracture toughness experiments carried out on material
from the crankpin showed that once the crack had reached
a depth of 5 mm the crack would continue to grow under
the influence of the nominal stress until final failure
occurred as a result of overloading of the remaining section.
NDT I N T E R N A T I O N A L . JUNE 1978
Fig. 4 Fracture surface showing the nature and extent of
cracking in the crankpin
This verified the fact that the crankpin would have even-
tuaUy failed in service possibly with most unfortunate
consequences.
Thus the use o f routine ndt examinations as part of the
maintenance programme for colliery equipment has brought
to light incipient failures whose consequences are impossible
to predict. However, the object o f ndt is not simply to correct
or replace a defective component, but to locate a source
of trouble and to prevent its recurrence by close liaison
between the ndt operator, the Engineer and the Metallurgist.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Director of Mining Research
and Development NCB, for permission to publish this paper.
Any opinions expressed are the authors' own and are not
necessarily those of the National Coal Board.
References
1 'Procedures for examining cage suspension gear at testing
centres' NCB (Mining) Codes and R ules (Draft) (1977)
2 'Procedures for the non-destructive testing of colliery
equipment' NCB (Mining) Codes and Rules {Draft) ( 1977)
3 'Non-destructive testing requirements for winding engine
mechanical brake and maindrive components' NCB Quality
Branch IS/QR.3 (Draft) (1977)
4 'Winding engine main reduction gear having wheels of cast
or fabricated construction and forged pinions' Draft
revision o f NCB Specification No 383/1963 (1977)
5 'Non-destructive testing in industry - coalmining' Non-
destructive testing J (February 1972)
6 'Non-destructive testing - an aid to safety in the mining
industry' Colliery Guardian (October 1973)
7 'Non-destructive testing of colliery winding engine equip-
ment' Proc symposium The transportation of men and
materials in shafts and underground, Harrogate, England
(AMEME, 1975)
8 'Non-destructive testing' Min Technol (April 1974)
137