Excessive Wear of Plain Carbon Steel Sprockets in a Chemical Plant Producing Fibers

Replacement sprockets installed on chain drive shafts for winding fibers exhibited excessive wear. Metallographic and chemical analyses conducted on the original and replacement sprockets showed that the material of the replacement sprocket was 1020 low-carbon steel, whereas the original (and specified) material was medium-carbon 1045 steel. The low-carbon steel also had lower hardness because of a lower pearlite fraction in the microstructure. It was recommended that replacement sprockets be made of normalized 1045 steel. It was further suggested that wear resistance could be improved by through hardening or induction surface hardening of the teeth.