Ridge Wear Repair

One of the services In-Situ Machining Solutions (UK) Ltd provide is our high-quality orbital machining. The quality of this service has helped our company become a leader in crankshaft machining and has assisted our customers in preventing bearing failures on their crankshafts. With the latest technology for machining and polishing of crankpin journals to repair the damaged crankpin diameters and remove ridge wear/cam effect before the problem becomes too severe and cause permanent damage to the engine or major components of the engine.

Our on-site machining engineers are highly skilled and equipped with a wealth of experience in preventing crankshaft bearing failure and rectifying ridge wear/cam effect. The advantages of choosing our specially trained teams are their expertise in orbital turning, machining, grinding, superfinishing and polishing operations. All work is carried out on-site with our unique equipment developed in-house and significantly limits the time that your engine is out of operation. Acting early on the signs of ridge wear/cam effect will significant reduce the work required to rectify the damage and your chances of unexpected crankshaft failure.

Ridge wear also known as Ridge Effect, Cam Effect or Cam Wear will inevitably develop over time. Medium-speed four-stroke engines could experience this problem once they have exceeded 60,000 hours of operation. However, poor maintenance and impurities within the oil can dramatically reduce this timeframe. This cam wear will become visible when a raised band emerges around the circumference of the crankpin diameter itself. Without any action to fix it, this visual change is an early indication of crankshaft wear as well as the eventual failure of the crankpin bearing. Cam Wear normally occurs on all of the big end journals on the crankshaft and can be rectified by crankshaft polishing or crankshaft grinding, depending on how bad the cam wear has become.

Ridge wear creates an uneven surface, which falls outside of OEM recommendations for flatness of the crankpin journal surface and in turn will eventually result in big end failure. Engine failure is undesired at any time because it’s a significant loss in expenses for repairs and lost productivity. Allowing ridge wear to persist cannot only result in a catastrophic bearing failure but could result in the irreparable damage to the crankshaft and worse still, damage to the conrods and engine block, forcing a rod through the side of the engine.