Investigation of the wear process in a gear-box by means of the method of surface activation by accelerated charged particles

To determine process of wear for improvement of machine parts and structures in the machine-building, now, in the frameworks of the speeded up testing for the life-time and reliability determination, radionuclides are used. One of the new methods is the surface activation of the working surfaces of machine parts by the accelerated particles. During activation, radionuclides are produced only in the thin surface lay of metal, and with this total activity of the machine parts remains low, which permits to use activated machine parts in the exploitation conditions. Relative activity of the surface layers is high which permits to obtain high enough sensitivity in measurement of wear. Applicability of this method has been shown on the examples of the data obtained during testing of the course of wear in wear in gear-boxes. Comparison was done of the lubricating oils and structural materials. Tests were conducted on the activated tooth gearing for lorries and city buses. In the tooth gearing tested, working planes of engagements of teeth were activated by different charged particles, for example: by neutrons with 12 MeV energy. The thickness of activated layer in these conditions was equal about 200μm. Dependence of the surface activity on the degree of wear can be considered being linear up to the layer depth equal to 50μm. Results of these tests, conducted without dismantling of gear-boxes, permit to obtain in the short period of time, information about the process of wear, which is impossible to get by any other mehod