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Repair welding of a rotating electrical machine's broken shaft

Article  in  Welding and Cutting · June 2019

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Repair welding of a rotating electrical machine’s

broken shaft
1 Introduction shaft repair welding, as a solution that en- low nominal stress caused the rotating
Shafts of the rotating electrical ma- ables cost-saving, can be used. bending of the shaft. The impact of high
chinery are elements for transmission This paper describes the technolo- stress concentration, from shaft step with
of power and rotational motion, that are gy of repair welding of the broken shaft a small radius, is visible on the fracture
exposed to various failure mechanisms in a case study of DC collector motor, surface, showing the location of instanta-
or their combinations [1] during their ex- P = 44 – 220 kW, shown on Fig. 1. Technical neous fracture i.e. fast fracture zone slight-
ploitation period. Due to their function characteristics of the motor and its shaft ly removed from the centre of the shaft’s
and loading, shafts are usually highly are specified in Table 1. The design of elec- circular section, shown on Fig. 2b.
stressed components. tric motor is of an older type, dating back Because of the before mentioned mo-
The basic failure mechanisms acting to the 1980s. The armature is made from tor’s armature design and the inability to
on rotating shafts are overload, fatigue, thin magnetic sheets stacked perpendic- disassemble the armature and simply re-
corrosion and wear. Corrosion and wear ularly to the machine axis, and from sup- place the broken shaft, the only available
generally leave visible marks on the shaft’s porting insulated conductors that form option was to make welding repairs of
surface as their impact grows, but they armature winding. During motor produc- the existing motor’s shaft. Because of the
alone can not cause the shaft to break. Fa- tion, armature is shrink fitted to the rotor motor’s significance, the repairs had to be
tigue and overload are failure mechanisms shaft, creating a non-separable assembly. done in the shortest possible time period.
that ultimately cause the shaft to break. The collector is made from insulated cop-
Shaft surfaces damaged by wear or corro- per strips stacked radially to form a ring. 2 Joint design and preparation
sion can be fairly easy to repair with com- The collector is connected to the armature When approaching the shaft repairs, it
monly used overlay welding or thermal winding and is also an integral part of the is mandatory to first determine the most
spray techniques. However, completely rotor assembly. suitable welded joint preparation, its-
broken shafts require a more complex re- During the exploitation period, the geometric shape and dimensional values.
pair approach. motor’s shaft suffered a break failure of the Shape and dimensions of the shaft exten-
On rotating electrical machines, due to front end. Shaft’s front end is of diameter sion, which is added to the existing shaft’s
the rotor (armature) design, it is often not ∅ = 90m6 mm, and fracture surface is dis- front end, must also be determined. This
possible to replace damaged shafts with- tanced around 165 mm from the shaft’s ut- is done in accordance with recommenda-
out a complete overhaul. Shafts are critical most end, shown on Fig. 2a. Visual inves- tions for welded joint preparation found
machine components, therefore damaged tigation of fracture surfaces revealed the in EN ISO 9692-1 [3], when using the pro-
or otherwise failed shafts put the complete cause of shaft failure to stem from fatigue cesses such as manual metal arc welding,
rotating machine out of function. Replac- mechanisms. Typical fracture surfaces gas-shielded metal arc welding or TIG
ing the complete armature or perhaps the obtained from laboratory test specimens welding etc. The norm also applies to steel
whole machine bears a significant finan- subjected to a range of different loading metallic materials, which are present in
cial expense. This presents an undesira- conditions were used to determine the the shaft – shaft extension joint. Joint ver-
ble solution to the problem. Alternatively, specific loading conditions [2]. In this case sion Ref. No. 1.7 was chosen as a reference
for further modifications with respect to
Table 1 • Technical characteristics of DC collector motor. specific shaft repair application. This type
of joint is a butt weld, single-V prepara-
tion with V root, applicable for materials
of thickness greater than 12 mm. The joint
itself has the root V opening at the angle
60° ⩽ α ⩽ 90°, and second V opening at
the angle 10° ⩽ β ⩽ 15°. Permissible gap
should be in range of 2 ⩽ b ⩽ 4 mm. This
type of joint is intended to be used in butt
welding the plates, when their thickness
exceeds the capabilities of simple sin-
gle-V preparation joints. With the increase
in thickness of plates in a butt joint, the
width of a joint face opening also increas-
es. Wider joint face opening requires more
filler metal material, and in turn generates
higher production costs. In order to reduce
the joint cross section, various joint types
Fig. 1 • DC collector motor, P = 44 – 220 kW. were introduced into practice, such as J or

198 Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3

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Fig. 2 • Break
failure of
motor’s shaft
front end:
a) drawing,
b) fracture
surface.

Fig. 3 • Joint
design and
preparation:
a) drawing,
b) machined
shaft exten-
sion.

U preparation, steep flanked V preparation present prior to the exploitation of the ma- chined in order to flatten the fractured sur-
with backing strip etc. Also to be noted is chine part, and therefore must be avoided face and prepare the adjacent side of the
the fact that such joint preparations are with proper joint preparation and welding. K butt weld joint. It is necessary to me-
commonly used when welding longitudi- Dual bevelling of the K butt weld flanks is chanically remove all the damaged materi-
nally placed plates. applied to allow sufficient access for MAG al in the vicinity of fractured surface in or-
Specific shaft repair requires some- gun nozzle during the welding and also to der to assure a welded joint without impu-
what modified joint preparation and ensure an optimal welded joint cross-sec- rities and various undesirable inclusions.
design, since this is a case of welding tional area. The root opening angle α = 55° Shaft extension has a base protrusion of
two axisymmetric bodies. This joint is a expands the joint and is mandatory to en- ∅ = 4 mm in diameter, which is used for
single-bevel preparation butt weld with sure proper root penetration and welding alignment and centering inside the joint.
single-bevel root, or otherwise named access, while second angle β = 15° closes Base protrusion is placed directly on to the
K preparation butt weld with dual bev- the joint face opening and therefore opti- machined surface of the existing shaft’s
el, shown on Fig. 3a. The joint itself is mises the cross-section area and related front end. During the welding, when using
axisymmetric, since it has to be welded filler metal material consumption. the appropriate welding parameters, it is
360° around the shaft’s central axis, closing Since the diameter of the shaft’s front possible to fully penetrate the base protru-
the full circular contour. Proper selection end is ∅ = 90m6 mm, a diameter of the sion with first welding passes, therefore no
of welded joint preparation shape and di- shaft extension used is ∅ = 100 mm. A gap between the shaft’s front end and base
mensions should enable full root penetra- wider extension diameter is necessary as it protrusion is needed. Adjusted and cen-
tion, ensuring complete and correct fusion leaves enough material for final machining tred parts of the joint are secured during
of the joint’s metal parts. It is important to to a required shaft diameter ∅ = 90m6 mm, the welding process preparation by means
achieve continuous, homogenous section after welding operations are finished. Shaft of vertical welding position and securing
of welded joint without volumetric indica- extension is produced from a steel round ribs that are tack welded, which are later
tions. Incomplete root penetration or lack bar on a horizontal lathe machine, using removed. Centring and adjusting of shaft
of fusion can be essentially compared to the turning machining process, shown on extension can also be achieved by drilling
initial cracks inside the metallic material, Fig. 3b. Existing shaft’s front end is ma- a shallow recess on existing shaft’s front

Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3 199

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REPORTS

end surface. This recess provides guidance ing with solid wire electrode (135) process al arc welding of non-alloy and fine grain
by shape for the base protrusion of shaft is chosen as the most appropriate. Manu- steels, according to ISO 14341-A standard,
extension. Despite the possibility of in- facture of the axisymmetric K butt joint re- labelled G42-4 M21 3Si1 in diameter of
complete root penetration and formation quires multi-pass welding technique with ∅ = 1.2 mm, manufactured by Oerlikon /
of cavity in the central drilled recess, the a relatively high number of weld passes. Air Liquide. The wire is suitable for weld-
mechanical integrity of the welded joint is Factors that determine a number of passes ing a wide range of structural steel appli-
not affected, since the torsional and flex- inside the joint are welding travel speed, cations. Chemical composition of the fill-
ural stresses in the centre of the circular weave width and technique, wire feed er metal and its mechanical properties is
section always equal zero. speed and diameter and welding machine specified in Table 3.
parameters. As mentioned before, geo-
3 Technological process and metry of the joint determines the volume 4 Welding process preparation
materials of the filler material and is therefore also The broken shaft’s front end had been
Based on existing technical documen- related to the number of passes. When machined and all material was removed
tation regarding the DC collector motor welding carbon and low alloy steels, high- from fracture surface to the first shaft jour-
and its shaft, available from the manufac- er number of welding passes contributes nal in diameter of ∅ 99.8-0.2 mm. Machin-
turer, the existing shaft material can be to mechanical properties, particularly to ing was done on the horizontal lathe ma-
determined. The material, marked as base toughness increase [6]. Each subsequent chine. This is necessary in order to make a
material I according to EN 10025-2 stand- welding pass generates the reheat thermal quality preparation of the K butt weld joint
ard, is a non-alloy structural steel grade cycle which normalises microstructure and to completely remove all damaged
S355J0/material number 1.0553. Material and reduces the residual stresses in the material that could cause imperfections
chosen for the shaft extension, marked as previous weld metal. Reducing the energy and difficulties during the welding of a
base material II, is a non-alloy structural input per pass limits the undesired grain new joint.
steel grade S355J2+N/material number growth. Previous weld passes generate Due to the large dimensions and
1.0577. In the grouping systems for Euro- preheat and slow down the cooling rate considerable mass of the DC motor, it is
pean materials according to welding suit- of total weld metal. The use of MAG mul- necessary to make high quality process
ability ISO/TR 20172 [4] and in guidelines ti-pass welding with solid wire electrode preparations, ensure proper manipulation
for metallic materials grouping system process for said K butt joint, is rational and appropriate repair welding setup. The
ISO/TR 15608 [5], both materials belong from the production aspect as well as from complete DC collector motor is set in a
to the group 1.2 which refers to steels the aspect of welding duration. MAG weld- vertical position in order to ensure unob-
with a specified minimum yield strength ing processes with flux cored (136) or met- structed access for the welder. The bottom
275 MPa < ReH ⩽ 360 MPa. Chemical com- al cored electrodes (138) could be used as end of the motor’s shaft, behind a collec-
position of the shaft extension base metal an alternative. tor, is placed in a corresponding coupling
and its mechanical properties are speci- Filler material is chosen in accordance and the joint is tightened. Coupling, which
fied in Table 2. Specified values apply for to chemical composition and mechani- serves as a support base for the motor, is
hot rolled round bar of diameter ∅ = 100 cal properties of material of the existing placed on top of the slotted floor plate and
mm. shaft, i.e. base material I and material of secured with screws, therefore securing
For repair welding of the broken shaft, shaft extension, i.e. base material II. It is a the motor’s vertical position and disabling
the manual MAG (metal active gas) weld- solid wire electrode for gas shielded met- its swinging and inclination. On central

Table 2 • Chemical composition and mechanical properties of base metal II, S355J2+N (material number 1.0577).

Table 3 • Chemical composition and mechanical properties of filler metal, ISO 14341-A-G 42 4 M21 3Si1.

200 Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3

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part of the motor, around the armature, a

collar is placed to provide a holding point
for lifting slings and assist during the mo-
tor’s lifting to a vertical working position.
This welding setup enables welding in a PB
and PC positions, Fig. 4. Shaft extension’s
base protrusion is placed on top of the ex-
isting shaft’s machined surface, forming
the axisymmetric K butt joint. Shaft exten-
sion is radially centred, while four secur-
ing ribs are placed circumferentially and
tack welded.
Conductors of the motor’s armature
winding are insulated using the F thermal
class electrical insulation according to EN
60085 standard [7]. Such insulation has
RTE (Relative Thermal Endurance) index of
> 155 – 180°C. During the welding process
it is mandatory to limit the thermal con-
duction through shaft metal and prevent
overheating of armature resulting in ther-
mal damage of insulation. Multiple layers
of stone wool serve as thermal protection,
preventing the overheating of lower por-
tions of shaft and armature, while protec- Fig. 4 • Welding
tive metal circular sheet serves as a physi- setup and repair
cal guard from spattering. welding process.
Both base materials are of non-alloy
low carbon steel grade, and therefore pre- down of the weld material’s cooling rate therefore no possibility of rotating the DC
heating rules for this metallic materials cat- is not a primary concern, preheating is collector motor and corresponding K butt
egory applies. Determination of minimum mostly done to ensure the moisture evap- joint around the vertical axis, the weld-
preheating temperature is given in various oration, which is a source of undesirable er must walk around the motor and weld
international standards and is based on hydrogen. Preheating is applied locally to 3 × 120° arches, Fig. 4. After each com-
factors such as steel chemical composition the K butt joint and nearby areas by means pleted welding pass, surfaces are properly
or carbon equivalent, combined materials of oxy-acetylene gas torch. cleaned with wire brush and visual control
thickness, heat input and class of weld- is carried out to inspect possible imperfec-
ing consumable. Since low carbon steels 5 Welding process tions. Circular welding passes are stacked
to be welded have a carbon equivalent Repair welding is performed in PB from bottom to top, up to the filling and
CEIIW = 0.44, minimum preheating tem- and PC working positions. Since no ap- completion of the K butt joint, as depicted
perature is set to Tp = 80°C. While slowing propriate turning device is available and on joint welding sequence, Fig. 5a.

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Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3 201

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REPORTS

Interpass temperature is set to maxi- tionary air. Thermal protection serves the process by turning on horizontal lathe, Fig.
mum Ti,max = 220°C in order to limit shaft purpose of slowing down the weld material 7a, a minimum of 24 h have passed. This is
and armature overheating. During the cooling rate, similarly to the preheating, but a period of cold cracking i.e. HIC (hydro-
welding process, constant monitoring of is applied after the welding. From cooling gen-induced cracking) formation in weld
joint weld metal temperatures, as well as the shaft’s welded joint to room temper- metal, therefore no new imperfections and
shaft temperatures in a zone below weld- ature to the beginning of the machining defects are expected afterwards.
ed joint and in a zone near thermal pro-
tection, is maintained, Fig. 5b. Measured
shaft temperatures Tshaft = 60 – 120°C are
lower than RTE index of F class insula-
tion, so no thermal damage to insulation
is expected. All temperatures are meas-
ured using the handheld IR thermometer
gun.
Welding parameters for MAG (135)
process are specified in Table 4. Shield-
ing gas used is M21 type of gas mixture
according to ISO 14175, consisting of
82% Ar + 18% CO2. As a general rule, root
passes are done with short-circuit met-
al transfer mode, with lower amperage,
while fill and cover passes are done with
globular and spray transfers, gradually in-
creasing the amperage followed with the
increase in heat input.
Welding parameters used for repair Fig. 5 • Axisymmetric K butt joint with dual bevel a) welding passes b) temperature monitoring.
welding are previously proven on a basis
of WPQR (Welding Procedure Qualifica-
tion Record) produced on a single-V butt
weld specimen with 30 mm thick plates
made of steel S355J2 from material group
1.2, shown on Fig. 6. Laboratory testing
was conducted in order to confirm me-
chanical properties of the welded joint.
Weld Vickers hardness testing with a
HV10 load was done on the macro sec-
tion, based on 30 indentations, Table 5.
Maximum hardness of 236.4 HV10 was re-
corded at point 5 in GCHAZ (grain-coars-
ened heat-affected zone), which is below
the maximum permitted hardness value
of 380 HV for non-heat treated material
Fig. 6 • Single-V butt weld WPQR specimen’s cross section with hardness testing indentations (WM: weld
group 1, according to EN ISO 15614-1 [8]. metal, BM: base metal, HAZ: heat-affected zone, GCHAZ: grain-coarsened heat-affected zone).
The Charpy impact test was performed
in WM (weld metal), FL (fusion line) and
FL + 2 mm locations inside the welded
joint, and all test results, Table 5, met the
requirement of minimum average val-
ue of 117 J for weld metal material. The
results of mechanical properties testing
were all found to be acceptable and there-
fore welding technology applicable for re-
pair welding procedure.

6 Final machining and inspection

After successful completion of the re-
pair welding process, the shaft’s welded
joint is wrapped with stone wool thermal
protection and left overnight to cool on sta- Fig. 7 • Repaired shaft: a) after repair welding b) final machined.

202 Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3

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Table 4 • Welding parameters of MAG (135) process.

Table 5 • WPQR of single-V butt weld: mechanical properties testing results.

The repaired shaft is premachined to motor, a method of repair welding of a Literature

a slightly larger diameter (+0.2/+0.3 mm) shaft that suffered a fatigue induced break [1] Handbook of reliability prediction pro-
cedures for mechanical equipment,
than the final required diameter of ∅ = of the front end. Inspection results and
CARDEROCKDIV, NSWC-11, West Bethes-
90m6 mm. This is necessary in order to various findings obtained after the suc- da, Maryland, 2011.
ensure sufficient material for removal if cessful repair welding process, show that [2] Milella P.P.: Fatigue and corrosion in met-
subsequent welding defects are revealed the applied technological method is ap- als, Springer, 2013.
after the machining process. NDT (non- propriate and yields results in accordance [3] EN ISO 9692-1:2013 – Welding and allied
processes – Recommendations for joint
destructive testing) methods used for to requirements on integrity and function
preparation – Part 1: Manual metal-arc
surface inspection are visual testing (VT) of a shaft as well as the whole rotating welding, gas-shielded metal-arc welding,
according to EN ISO 17637 and magnet- electrical machine. Application of axisym- gas welding, TIG welding and beam weld-
ic particle testing (MT) according to EN metric K butt weld joint with dual bevel ing of steel, CEN, 2013.
ISO 17638. For volumetric inspection of for repair procedures of various broken [4] ISO/TR 20172:2009 – Welding – Grouping
systems for materials – European materi-
repair welded shaft material, ultrasonic shafts, despite requiring more effort for
als, ISO, 2009.
testing (UT) method according to EN ISO joint preparation compared to a simple [5] ISO/TR 15608:2017 – Welding – Guidelines
17640 is used. The inspection is carried out butt joints, ensures complete root pene- for a metallic materials grouping system,
throughout the whole volume and surface tration and therefore a long exploitation- ISO, 2017.
of shaft extension. No surface or volumet- al life span. The potential of stated repair [6] Chen, C.C., A. Pollack: Influence of weld-
ing on steel weldment properties, ASM In-
ric imperfections are detected. After con- welding procedure is substantial, since it
ternational, ASM Handbook, 1993.
firmation of the NDT inspection results, can be generally applied to shafts of var- [7] EN 60085:2008 - Electrical insulation –
final machining of the shaft shown on Fig. ious dimensions, masses and purposes, Thermal classification, CENELEC, 2008.
7b, and milling of the keyway slot is done. that have suffered break failures or simi- [8] EN ISO 15614-1:2004 – Specification and
lar damages. Various axisymmetric bod- qualification of welding procedures for
metallic materials – Welding procedure
7 Conclusions ies could also be repaired using the same
test – Part 1 – Arc and gas welding of steels
In a modern industrial practice shafts procedure. Adapting the butt joint designs and arc welding of nickel and nickel alloys,
which suffered various exploitational sur- and dimensions for other similar applica- CEN, 2004.
face defects from corrosion or wear influ- tions potentially yield even better results
ences, are generally successfully repaired and expand the repair procedure poten- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
with commonly used overlay welding or tial. This is, however, subject to further in-
The author thanks Konč ar – Generators
thermal spray techniques. These tech- vestigations.
and Motors Inc. for the technical sup-
niques restore surface integrity and ena- Damir Tomerlin,
port, experimental investigations, mate-
ble continuation of service usage. Shafts Končar – Generators and Motors Inc.,
rial testing and the provision of materi-
that failed due to breaks are however Zagreb, Croatia
als and equipment required for the suc-
mostly denoted as irreparable and intend-
cessful conducting of the technological
ed for scrap metal. This paper describes,
process of broken shaft repair welding.
in a case study of a specific DC collector

Welding and Cutting 18 (2019) No. 3 203

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