J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2009) 9:122126 DOI 10.

1007/s11668-009-9211-8

CASE HISTORYPEER-REVIEWED

Fatigue Failure of a Ground-Engaging Tool

Chinnia Subramanian

Submitted: 30 July 2008 / in revised form: 15 January 2009 / Published online: 11 February 2009 ASM International 2009

Abstract A cast steel tooth used in an earth-moving application was analyzed to determine the cause of failure. The tooth reportedly failed prematurely during service was analyzed for chemical composition, hardness, and microstructure, in addition to extensive scanning electron microscopy of the fracture surface. The presence of a casting defect caused the initiation of a fatigue process due to a loose t between the tooth and its adapter. Keywords Wear Fatigue failure Failure analysis

Introduction There are numerous types of cutting edges used in the mining, construction, road building, and maintenance industries. These edges vary in size, shape, material type, and functionality and are generally made of carbon steel or abrasion-resistant materials. To help improve the process of digging and moving dirt or rock, some of the cutting edges have teeth attached to them. These teeth can be attached to the cutting edges directly or via adapters. Tooth replacement is easier when adapters are employed. A typical tooth is shown in Fig. 1. Since there are so many types of teeth and adaptors available in the market, it is beyond the scope of this article to review all of them. Basically, the teeth do the digging and need to stay sharp to ensure good penetration. The conditions of the teeth can have a profound impact on the efciency of the operation.
C. Subramanian (&) Black Cat Blades Ltd, 5604 59 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T6R 2C9, Canada e-mail: chinnias@blackcatblades.com

In most applications, teeth encounter abrasive materials resulting in wear of the teeth. They may also be subjected to repeated impact and/or bending forces. The ground-engaging tools are generally replaced on a regular basis as they wear out. The worn out teeth are blunt and require higher force to dig. Since the abrasive wear situation is so severe, some of the teeth only last for few hundred hours. The actual life depends on the type of application, abrasivity of the material being handled, operator experience, etc. The useful life of a tooth comes to an end because of either breakage or wear. Customers would rather see the teeth wear in a controlled manner rather than break, thus their number one concern is breakage [1]. If wear occurs, it is easier to replace worn out teeth at planned intervals. If a breakage occurs, it results in broken pieces of steel that may cause other problems in the downstream operations. There will also be unexpected downtime associated with the replacement of teeth and potentially xing the damaged downstream equipment. The cost of this downtime and repair may be several hundred thousand dollars. The cast tooth products are manufactured by methods such as sand casting and investment casting (i.e., lost-wax) using a low-alloy steel. The surface nish and tolerances are generally superior in the lost wax process in comparison to the sand cast parts. This article describes the observations made on a Heavy Duty Penetration (J550)-style tooth that broke prematurely in the eld.

Materials and Methods Table 1 shows the chemical composition of the steel used in the manufacture of the tooth under investigation. The material used is a low-carbon boron steel.

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Fig. 1 A rendered image of a ground-engaging tooth

Fig. 2 Microstructure of the cast steel tooth (9500)

Table 2 Hardness results Table 1 Chemistry results Results C Si Mn P S Cr Mo Al B V Cu Fe 0.263 1.33 0.83 0.0089 0.0088 2.02 0.207 0.03 0.001 0.0083 0.032 Remainder Specication 0.260.33 1.41.6 0.851.05 \0.025 \0.025 1.902.05 0.250.32 Location 1 2 3 4 5 6 Average Spec HRC 46.3 49.2 49.9 49.5 48.8 48.1 48.6 4853

testing, optical microscopy, and spark spectrometry were employed.

Results The heat treatment procedure used for the cast steel tooth is as follows: Austenitize at 15501650 F Water quench to room temperature Temper at 800 F. A sample piece cut from the tooth was analyzed using a spark spectrometer. The chemical composition of the tooth generally meets the specication except for Mo as shown in Table 1. The hardness of the tooth section was tested using a Rockwell hardness tester and are also within specication, Table 2. A small metallographic sample of the tooth was prepared to reveal its microstructure. As this tooth was used in the heat-treated condition, the microstructure of tempered martensite was expected and found, Fig. 2. Figure 3 shows an overall view of the fracture surface on the pocket of the tooth under consideration. There are three regions observed. Region A contains a casting defect where the crack has initiated. Region B is a slow growth region where the crack slowly propagated due to fatigue

The tooth was received in two piecespocket and cutting edge portions. The fracture surface was slightly damaged in the eld and had some amount of dirt on the surface. The dirt was removed by soaking in soapy water and ultrasonical cleaning using a metal-cleaning solution. The fracture surface was observed under a stereoscope to reveal macroscopic features of the fracture. Using a wire-cut electric discharge machine (EDM), a piece containing the fracture surface was cut out for further analysis. Scanning electron microcopy (SEM), hardness

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Fig. 3 Fracture surface showing the crack origin, slow fracture (fatigue), and fast fracture (catastrophic) zones

Fig. 4 Inclusions near the crack origin

Fig. 5 Shrinkage voids and intergranular type fracture in Region A

loading. This was likely due to a loose t between the tooth and its adapter. As the tooth was used in the mine or quarry, it was repeatedly loaded and unloaded. The loading cycles became severe because of the loose t. Region C is the fast fracture zone where the remaining cross section

was no longer sufcient to withstand the applied load on the tooth. The fracture surface containing all three regions was analyzed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with the energy dispersive spectroscopic (EDS) analysis capability. Figures 48 shows the fractographic images of the tooth.

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Fig. 6 Mechanical rubbing/sliding after fracture attened the surface containing microvoids

Figure 4 shows several nonmetallic inclusions whereas Fig. 5 shows the evidence for shrinkage porosity in Region A. The fractograph also exhibits ductile features (microvoid coalescence). Figure 6 is another view of the same region where there is evidence for mechanical rubbing due to repeated loading and unloading cycles. Figure 7 depicts the boundary between the slow crack growth zone and fast fracture zone. Two distinctively different fracture surfaces are seen in this fractograph. Figure 8 shows Region Bslow growth zone. This is a zone where the fatigue crack grows at a slower rate where each loading/unloading cycle advances the crack by a few microns. Generally, SEM observation of a fatigue region reveals microscopic striations but no such striations were observed in this sample. It should be noted that this is a high-strength steel with limited ductility and therefore such visible striations are not always observed [2, 3]. Additionally, the extent of crack advance with each cycle was large enough to cause crack advance by microvoid coalescence.

Fig. 7 The interface region between the slow and fast fracture zones

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Fig. 8 Magnied view of a river mark (multiple fracture planes) with mixed mode of fracture in Region B

Fig. 9 Fast fracture zone showing semiductile fracture due to overload

Figure 9 shows the fast fracture zoneRegion C. This has mixed mode of fracture with ductile and brittle features.

fracture when the remaining cross section of the part is no longer sufcient to withstand the applied load.

Conclusions Discussion Generally, ground-engaging tools are periodically replaced because the tools lose their usefulness due to wear. Under certain circumstances, the bucket teeth fracture catastrophically and require immediate replacement. The broken tooth could impede with the downstream operations costing larger damage to the plant. The operators of the equipment prefer predictable wear life without catastrophic breakage. The design involves balancing the wear resistance and fracture strength. This was achieved through chemistry and heat treatment to nd a compromise between hardness and toughness. Fatigue fracture occurred because of the following: (a) Fracture initiation site (casting defects) (b) Cyclic loading to high stresses (loose t, loading, and unloading of teeth against the dirt/rock/ore) (c) Low fracture toughness (high hardness from heat treatment). When loading conditions are severe, a tooth with a casting defect can initiate a fatigue fracture. The crack can grow slowly due to repetitive loading resulting in a catastrophic The tooth was found to have failed by a fatigue mechanism due to cyclic loading experienced in the eld. A crack initiated due to a casting defect inside the pocket of the tooth. The loose t of the tooth against the adapter probably contributed to the failure. It is recommended that the casting and heat treatment processes be rened to minimize the possibility of casting defects and increase the toughness of the steel.
Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Steve Whymark and Sean Sineld for their assistance in the preparation of the samples for microscopy and testing. Thanks are due to Ludwig and Associates, Edmonton for their help in scanning electron microscopy.

References
1. Jackson, T.: Maintenance/management: getting the right bite. Equipment World (October 2006), pp 6365 2. Sachs, N.W.: Understanding the surface features of fatigue fractures: how they describe the failure cause and failure history. J. Fail. Anal. Prev. 5(2), 1115 (2005) 3. Failure analysis and prevention. In: Metals Handbook, vol. 11. ASM International, Materials Park (2002), P708

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