TATA MOTORS LIMITED,

JAMSHEDPUR

PROJECT REPORT

ON

Analytical approach for investigation of Rocker

Shaft oil leakage through new methodology PFMEA
and Root Cause Analysis

Date: 11 May 2019 – 11 June 2019

Under Guidance of
Mr. Pankaj Pandey

Submitted by:

SAGNIK DATTA
B-Tech, 6 Semester, Mechanical Engineering
th

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Industrial training is a crucial period in engineering curriculum since it exposes a student to
the real world in which he is going to enter after the completion of B-Tech. This is the period
during which an engineer actually becomes an engineer by gaining the industrial experience.
I am very thankful to Management Training Centre, TATA MOTORS for letting me to have this
opportunity.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Pankaj Pandey and Mr. Vinay Satsangi
(Engine Factory, TATA MOTORS JSR) for their able and result oriented guidance in the project.

My project on Analytical approach to investigate Rocker Shaft oil leak through PFMEA and
Defect Root Cause Analysis. Mr. Souradeep Kundu, helped me to analyse & observe the
operations going on in line. He provided crucial insights about detail analysis of PFMEA.
Further Mr. Arun Kumar Mishra guided me through the Engine testing and rectification
methodologies.

I would like to render my sincere thanks to the Engine Factory for providing infrastructure
facilities, support and cooperation to complete the project. I am ineffably indebted to each
and every member of Engine Factory for conscientiousness and encouragement to
accomplish this assignment. I would also like to thank TATA MOTORS family for providing me
such an opportunity to get an insight into the system of the industry, the first experience of
its kind. Any omission in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude.

SAGNIK DATTA
B-Tech, 6th Semester
Mechanical Engineering
IIEST, Shibpur
 Contents
1. ENGINE TESTING
a) Leakage Testing
b) Performance Testing
c) Noise Testing
2. Introduction to Rocker Arm
3. FMEA
a) Definition
b) FMEA Purposes
c) Types of FMEA’s
d) Failure Modes and Product Characteristics
4. PFMEA
a) Elemental level Decomposition of the operation
b) Error Identification
c) G – FISHBONE DIAGRAM
d) Risk Priority Number (RPN) number
e) Severity, Occurrence and Detection evaluation criteria
f) Prioritizing Failure Modes
g) Actions to be taken
5. Defect Root Cause Analysis of Rocker Shaft oil leakage
a) Defect and Statistical Data
b) Process cycle information of Rocker Arm
c) G - Fishbone Diagram
d) Why-Why analysis
 1. Engine Testing
a) Leakage Testing – Different types of leakage can occur in Engines. Lubricating oil
leakage, fuel leakage, coolant leakage, boost leakage and exhaust leakage. In order
to identify the probable sites of leakage we need to know their circulation mode
throughout the engine, the same is discussed below

Lubricating oil circulation loop – The oil pup receives power from engine through belt pulley
arrangement. Oil pump sucks oil from the sump and supplies to the secondary oil filter with
high pressure removing dust from oil. The oil then flows through lines and galleries to
lubricate the moving machine parts. Oil from main gallery flows through holes drilled inside
crankshaft and main bearing to lubricate them. Sprouts fitted spays oil to the piston. The oil
ring is the piston forms a thin layer of oil round the cylindrical bore. Oil from second gallery
lubricate the camshaft, rocker arm, valves and valve springs through sprouts. After lubricating
all moving parts oil flows through separate passage and gets collected in the sump.

Fuel circulation loop - The function of the diesel fuel system is to inject a precise amount
of atomized and pressurized fuel into each engine cylinder at the proper time. Combustion in
a diesel engine occurs when this rush of fuel is mixed with hot compressed air. (No electrical
spark is used as in a gasoline engine.) The fuel is stored in the fuel tanks and the system
consists of three types of fuel lines. These include heavyweight lines for the high pressures
found between the injection pump and the injectors, medium weight lines for the light or
medium fuel pressures found between the fuel tank and injection pump, and lightweight lines
where there is little or no pressure.

The fuel while going from the tank to the Fuel Injection pump passes through fuel filter. Fuel
is then pumped to the common rail from where it is injected into the bore during compression
stroke through fuel injectors. The excess fuel flows through the overflow pipe back to the
tank.
Coolant circulation loop - Diesel engines are heat-generating sources. They are cooled by
circulating a water-based coolant through a water jacket, which is part of the engine. The
coolant is circulated through pipes to the radiator to remove the heat added to the coolant
by the engine and then back to the engine. The typically components of the cooling system
are Water pumps, Heat removing device (radiator or heat exchanger),Coolant expansion
tanks (surge tanks), temperature control valves, temperature and pressure switches and
indicators, pipes.

Turbo charger (boost circulation) Loop - A turbocharger is a turbine-driven forced

induction device that increases an internal combustion engine's efficiency and power output
by forcing extra compressed air into the combustion chamber. It consists of a turbine and a
compressor blade.
The exhaust gas from the combustion chamber enter the turbine housing where the thermal
energy is converted to kinetic energy. Since the compressor blade is mounted on the same
shaft it rotates at the same speed as of the turbine blade. Thus the compressor housing sucks
in air and compresses it. Since due to compression the temperature of the air increases the
compressed air is passed through an intercooler before supplying it to the combustion
chamber. This improvement over a naturally aspirated engine's power output is due to the
fact that the compressor can force more air—and proportionately more fuel—into the
combustion chamber than atmospheric pressure alone.

Exhaust Gas Recycle (EGR) Loop – Air taken as intake into the combustion chamber has
Nitrogen and Oxygen which reacts among themselves and produces NOx compounds. These
exhaust gases from the combustion chamber goes to the exhaust manifold. In order to reduce
NOx emissions so as to maintain pollution standards Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system
is installed in Engines. EGR achieves this by slightly reducing the temperature of the
combustion chamber and thus resisting reaction between nitrogen and oxygen. As the EGR
valve open a portion of the exhaust gases are sucked in letting it to pass through EGR coolant.
Further these cooled exhaust gases is again supplied to the combustion chamber through the
intake manifold.
 b) Performance testing – Here the engine is tested for its performance according
to the predefined values of parameters. The various performance parameters
checked are
a) Torque
b) Fuel Consumption
c) Lubricating oil pressure
d) Smoke
e) Fly-off and Ideal RPM

The performance testing is done in 6 stages

 The Engine is run at Fly-up speed i.e. full throttle speed/ acceleration speed
 Load of around 130 PS is applied, the Engine speed is reduced to 2400 rpm (rated
rpm). At this torque it is checked that the Engine produces torque more than the
minimum specified value, fuel consumption and smoke is less than the maximum
specified value. Further the water outlet temperature (around 80oC), intercooler
outlet temperature (around 47oC) and lubricating oil pressure.
 Further the load is increased in 3 steps such that the Engine runs at 2000 rpm, 1400
rpm and 1200 rpm respectively and the torque produced is ensured to be more than
the minimum specified value.
 Finally the Engine is run at ideal rpm and the lubricating oil pressure is checked

c) Noise Testing - Four main noise are been tested -

 Head sag noise – This occurs due to piston stumping. This can be an effect of improper
piston protrusion.
 Front sag noise – This happens due to improper gear meshing and fitment producing
gear noise
 Bottom sag noise – This noise comes due to improper operation of connecting rod
 Tappet noise – Noise due to tappet vibration.
 2. Introduction to Rocker Arm
A rocker arm (in the context of an internal combustion engine of automotive, marine,
motorcycle and reciprocating aviation types) is an oscillating lever that conveys radial
movement from the cam lobe into linear movement at the poppet valve to open it. One end
is raised and lowered by a rotating lobe of the camshaft (either directly or via a tappet (lifter)
and pushrod) while the other end acts on the valve stem. When the camshaft lobe raises the
outside of the arm, the inside presses down on the valve stem, opening the valve. When the
outside of the arm is permitted to return due to the camshafts rotation, the inside rises,
allowing the valve spring to close the valve.

Some overhead cam engines employ short rocker arms in which the cam lobe pushes down
(rather than up) on the rocker arm to open the valve. On this type of rocker arm, the fulcrum
is at the end rather than the middle, while the cam acts on the middle of the arm. The
opposite end opens the valve. These types of rocker arms are particularly common on dual
overhead cam motors, and are often used instead of direct tappets.

The drive cam is driven by the camshaft. This pushes the rocker arm up and down about the
trunnion pin or rocker shaft. Friction may be reduced at the point of contact with the valve
stem by a roller tip. A similar arrangement transfers the motion via another roller tip to a
second rocker arm. This rotates about the rocker shaft, and transfers the motion via a tappet
to the poppet valve. In this case this opens the intake valve to the cylinder head.
Leverage

The effective leverage of the arm (and thus the force it can exert on the valve stem) is
determined by the rocker arm ratio, the ratio of the distance from the rocker arm's centre of
rotation to the tip divided by the distance from the centre of rotation to the point acted on
by the camshaft or pushrod. Current automotive design favours rocker arm ratios of about
1.5:1 to 1.8:1. However, in the past smaller positive ratios (the valve lift is greater than the
cam lift) and even negative ratios (valve lift smaller than the cam lift) have been used. Many
pre-World War II engines use a 1:1 (neutral) ratio.

Materials

For car engines the rocker arms are generally steel stampings, providing a reasonable balance
of strength, weight and economical cost. Because the rocker arms are, in part, reciprocating
weight, excessive mass especially at the lever ends limits the engine's ability to reach high
operating speeds. For this reason, aluminium is often used for high performance, aftermarket
rocker arms for pushrod engines as well as many OEM rocker arms on OHC engines.
Aluminium rockers on OHC engines often have a steel pad or roller where the cam contacts
the rocker arm in order to reduce wear. Truck engines (mostly diesel) use stronger and stiffer
rocker arms made of cast iron (usually ductile), or forged carbon steel.

Rocker Shaft Oil Leakage

Excess oil has been found to leak from the rocker nipple in the testing area. This is further
rectified in the rectification shop by completely replacing the defective Rocker arm. In order
compliment the process of finding the root cause of the defect Process Failure Mode and
Effect Analysis of the Rocker Arm Assembly fitment Station of the Rocker Arm has been
made.
 3. FMEA
a) Definition - An FMEA can be described as a systemized group of activities intended
to:
 Recognize and evaluate the potential failure of a product/process and its effects,
 Identify actions which could eliminate or reduce the chance of the potential failure
occurring, and document the process. It is complementary to the process of defining
that a design or process must do to satisfy the customer.
b) FMEA Purposes
General/overall purposes of an FMEA:

 Improves the quality, reliability and safety of the evaluated products/processes.

 Reduces product redevelopment timing and cost.
 Documents and tracks actions taken to reduce risk.
 Aids in the development of robust control plans.
 Aids in the development of robust design verification plans.
 Improves customer/consumer satisfaction.
c) Types of FMEA’s

There are several types of FMEAs, some are used much more often than others. FMEAs should
always be done whenever failures would mean potential harm or injury to the user of the end
item being designed. The types of FMEA are:

e) Concept – focuses on global system functions

f) Design – focuses on components and subsystems
g) Process – focuses on manufacturing and assembly processes
h) Machinery – focuses on machine functions
i) Environment – focuses on environmental functions
j) Health and Safety
 d) Failure Modes and Product Characteristics
Failure modes are any errors or defects in a process or design that affect the customer. It is
the state when the process has to produce an expected result and the process is not giving
the output. The failure mode can be potential or actual. This expected result is referred to as
the product characteristics. This term was first used in manufacturing industries during
various phases of the product life-cycle and has now found its way into all other industries.
Effects analysis is the investigation of the consequences of those failures.

4. PFMEA
Process FMEA is to identify all potential and actual Process Failure modes, explore the
possible causes, analyse the control mechanism for each failure mode and causes, prioritize
failure modes and initiate actions to eliminate the failure modes. There are 4 analysis
conducted in PFMEA- Effect analysis, Casual analysis, Control analysis and Action analysis.

Below are the steps performed during the operation with relevant snaps of the excel sheet

a. Elemental level Decomposition of the operation

In this step a particular operation/process is divided into elemental steps required for its
completion.
 b. Error Identification
After dividing the entire operation into elemental activities, activity wise error identification
using checklist helps to identify several possible errors. Using the checklist of 16 errors, which
is generic and applicable for almost all human operation. Identification of errors can be
maximised. Following table is prepared by Dr. Nakajo. It indicates generic error category and
1% of errors he found in that category in assembly operation.
From this the final list of errors and their effect on the error on the product is identified.
 c. G – FISHBONE DIAGRAM
G – Fishbone diagram also called shikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams,
herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, or Fishikawa) are causal diagrams created
by Kaoru Ishikawa that show the causes of a specific event.

Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention to
identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a
source of variation.

The defect is shown as the fish's head, facing to the right, with the causes extending to the
left as fishbone; the ribs branch off the backbone for major causes, with sub-branches for
root-causes, to as many levels as required.

Ishikawa diagrams were popularized in the 1960s by Kaoru Ishikawa, who pioneered quality
management processes in the Kawasaki shipyards, and in the process became one of the
founding fathers of modern management.

The basic concept was first used in the 1920s, and is considered one of the seven basic tools
of quality control. It is known as a fishbone diagram because of its shape, similar to the side
view of a fish skeleton.

Advantages

 Highly visual brainstorming tool which can spark further examples of root causes
 Quickly identify if the root cause is found multiple times in the same or different causal
tree
  Allows one to see all causes simultaneously
 Good visualization for presenting issues to stakeholders

d. Risk Priority Number (RPN) number

Where the severity is maximum (Risk for the customer/ user/ organisation) and occurrence is more
(That failure mode is happening in the process in the process frequently) and the effectiveness of the
detection is less (The failure mode can escape from the detection control and can affect the user/
customer or the organization), risk will be more.

The purpose of doing this study is to identify the area, where the risk is more and then action to reduce
the possibility of occurrence. If an organisation is having 100 failure mode it has to prioritize the failure
modes existing in its processes. For prioritization, it needs some realistic data, which will represent
the seriousness of the failure mode. This is called Risk Priority Number – RPN. RPN is the product of
severity, occurrence and detection.

After prioritizing the failure modes, where the actions should be taken. Actions are to taken against
the causes, so prioritizing the causes is also necessary.
Risk Priority Number (RPN) calculation
A numerical calculation of the relative risk of a particular Failure Mode

Risk Priority Number (RPN) = SEV x OCC x DET

For prioritizing failure mode as well as the causes, RPN for failure mode and RPN for causes to be
identified.

1. RPN for Failure Mode = Severity Max (of various effects for the failure mode) * Occurrence of
Failure mode * Detection of Failure mode
2. RPN for Causes = Severity Max * occurrence of that cause * Detection of cause
e. Severity, Occurrence and Detection evaluation criteria
Severity number is evaluated based on two criteria. The first is the effect of the failure mode on the
customer product and second is the effect of the failure mode on the production process. Based on
this numbering is done for the effect of the failure mode on five steps namely Next step, Subsequent
step, end user, machine and operator at respective station. The maximum of these five is finally
considered as the Severity number. The following table shows the Severity evaluation criteria in detail

Occurrence number is evaluated based on the likelihood of failure and percentage of rejection value
(PPK) of the particular failure mode. It is discussed in detail in the following table.

Detection number is evaluated based on the likelihood of detection by process control. It is discussed
in detail in the following table.
 f. Prioritizing Failure Modes
 After identifying the RPN prioritizing of failure mode is to be done using Pareto analysis, using
RPN of failure modes. With the prioritized failure modes each failure mode is to be individually
taken for prioritizing causes. Special concern have to be given for modes with Severity 9 or 10,
Severity X occurrence greater than or equal to 36 and modes with high RPN number.
 Some of the failure modes will not get prioritized during conducting Pareto analysis. So failure
modes with severity greater than or equal to 7 has to be identified.
 Similarly failure modes occurring very frequently but not having large severity or detection
will not be prioritized by RPN. But action is to be taken for such failure modes.
g. Actions to be taken
 Occurrence to be reduced no less than 4 for SEV 9 or 10. For that working has to be
done for causes where controls are weak and where cause occurrences are more.
 Automated control such as POKA-YOKE has to me has to be implemented for detecting
Failure Mode.
 For SEV*OCC >= 36 POKA-YOKE detection or 100 % inspection must be there.

The final PFMEA sheet has been given in the next page.
5. Defect Root Cause Analysis of Rocker Shaft oil leakage
a) Defect and Statistical Data
Excess oil has been found to leak from the rocker nipple in the testing area. This is
further rectified in the rectification shop by completely replacing the defective Rocker
arm. Statistical data related to the same has been shown below.

b) Process cycle information of Rocker Arm

In order to find the root cause of the defect the entire process cycle of the Rocker arm
fitment is analysed. Starting from the store from where it is received from the
supplier’s end, the washing area and assembly line.
I. Store – The rocker arms are received from suppliers end in separate cardboard
boxes. From here it is transferred to the washing area in plastic trays with
partition in-between each rocker arm. Since there is no metal to metal contact
there is no chance of dent on the rocker arm.

II. Washing Area - Here the rocker arms are transferred from the plastic trays to
metal trays before feeding them to the washing machine. These metal trays
have no partition between each rocker arm thus invoking possibility of dent. A
critical area of dent is the tapered end of the rocker arm. A dent on which can
obviously cause oil leakage. A similar situation has been spotted in the washing
 area where the tapered end of a rocker arm is in direct contact with the lever
bolt of another arm. The Rocker arms are then transferred to the assembly line
in the same metallic trays.

III. Assembly Line - Here again safely the rocker arms are transferred from the
metal trays to partitioned plastic trays. Two observations relating to probable
cause leading to oil leakage has been made
1. Fitment of the nipple in opposite orientation with the smaller nipple with bigger
hole fitted on the fan side. This can result in oil leakage as lubricating oil flows from
the fan side and there is transfer of oil from larger to smaller cross-section.
2. Presence of foreign particles on the nipple plier used to fit the nipple in between
the rocker arms can give rise to dent on the tapered end of Rocker Arm or nipple
c) G - Fishbone Diagram
d) Why-Why Analysis
This is a method of root cause analysis which requires to question how the sequential
causes of a failure event arose and to identify the cause effect failure path. ‘Why’ is asked
to find each preceding trigger until we supposedly arrive at the root cause of the incident.

The tree is started with a statement with a statement of the situation and reason of its
occurrence is asked. This answer is then turned to a second ‘Why’ question. The next
answer becomes the third ‘Why’ question and so on.

Implied in the Five Why’s root cause analysis tool is the use of cause and effect tree known
as the Why Tree. The method is also called Fault Tree Analysis.

There can be more than one answer to a single ‘Why’ in different levels of the tree. But in
order to achieve the root cause of the defect we need to identify the actual cause of the
event with proper evidence in each step.