Wheels And Axles Of Improved Metallurgy

This project envisages developing steel of improved metallurgy for wheels and axles for better safety, reliability and enhanced carrying capacity without substantially altering design parameters. This is a large size project considering that Indian Railways currently have a population constituting of 1440000 wagons wheels, 280000 coach wheels, 72000 locomotives wheels and half the number of axles for each of the two; additionally several thousand new wheels are needed every year. The procedure adopted involves identification of steel compositions, appropriate laboratory scale trials followed by varying processing parameters for the purpose of controlling the microstructures of steels produced. Subsequently, their tensile properties, toughness, fatigue resistance and wear resistance are evaluated. The next step is production of steel samples on the pilot scale under optimized processing parameters. Data analysis and review is to be further carried out to standardize new processing parameters.

Flow Process of Forging Followed by Rim-Quenching

Project Team