The catastrophic failure mode is caused by delamination between the belt and its fabric reinforcement. Although this may be caused by age and wear, it is often accelerated by mistreatment of the belt, often during initial installation. Overloading the belt by bending it to a narrow radius is a common cause of damage, either by bending out of the belt's designed axis, twisting, levering it into place with tools, bending in the correct axis but to too small a radius, or even knotting a belt in storage. Another cause, particularly with natural rubber belts, is contamination by oil, especially to the edges where the reinforcing fabric is exposed and can cause a wick effect.