A

Seminar Report

On

Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels

By

Rushikesh S. Malviya

Roll No: 303023

Under the Guidance of

Prof. R. S. Katikar

Department of Production Engineering

Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune-41

Accredited by NBA

SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY

2018-19
 Date:

Certificate

This is to certify that Mr. Rushikesh S. Malviya has successfully completed his seminar work on
“Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels ” at Sinhgad College of Engineering , Pune in the partial
fulfillment of the Graduate Degree course in T.E. at the department of Production Engineering,
in the academic Year 2018-2019 Semester VI as prescribed by the Savitribai Phule Pune
University.

Dr.R.S.Katikar Dr.R.S.Katikar
Guide Head of Department
. Department of Production Engineering
Dr. S. D. Lokhande
Principal
Sinhgad College of Engineering

Acknowledgements

Every work is source which requires support from many people and areas. It gives me
proud privilege to complete the seminar on “Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels ”
under valuable guidance and encouragement of my guide Dr.R.S.katikar. I am also
extremely grateful to our respected H.O.D.(Production Engineering) Dr.R.S.Katikar for
providing all facilities and every help for smooth progress of seminar. I would also like
to thank all the Staff Member of Productuon Engineering Department for timely help
and inspiration for completion of the seminar. At last I would like to thank all the unseen
authors of various articles on the Internet, helping me become aware of the research
currently ongoing in this field and all my colleagues for providing help and support in my
work.

Rushikesh S. Malviya
Roll No.-303023

ii

Abstract
This seminar is based on manufacturing process of the railway wheels. It provides
the information about the history of railway wheels, how the development were made
in the design and the manufacturing of the wheels. It gives us the information about the
designing process of the wheels. The factors which must be considered during the
designing of the web, rim of wheel. The characteristics which any railway wheel should
posses to work properly without any failure. It also provides us the information about
the basic manufacturing process which is followed to make a common railway wheel.
This process includes steps like cutting of material from ingot, forging of wheel using
furnace, rolling , heat treatment provided to give the wheel the required strength,
machining of wheel using CNC machines and the last step of inspection. The inspection
of the axles is done by using ultrasonic testing. After all the above steps the wheels which
fit in all the criteria provided by the railway are dispatched. It also focuses on the
problems which can occur during the manufacturing of the wheels in a plant. These
problems can be divided under the four basic criteria of man, machine, method and
material. The last but not the least thing in this seminar is the maintenance of the wheel.
No mechanical part can work properly without proper maintenance. Hence the
maintenance should be done at regular interval of time.

iii

Contents
Certificate i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2
3 History 3
3.1 Technical description of modern trailing wheelsets Classification . . . . . 4
3.1.1 Modern trailing wheelsets technical description . . . . . . . . . . 4
4 Characteristics required for wheels 7
5 Designing of Wheels 9
5.1 Structure Of Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2 Designing Of Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2.1 Designing of web configuration under the mechanical loads . . . . 10
5.2.2 Types Of Web Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.2.3 Fatigue strength of web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.2.4 Relationship between web configuration and thermal stress distri-
bution caused by braking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.3 Designing of Rim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6 Process Of Making Of Wheel And Axle 14
6.1 Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.1.1 Wheel Making Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.1.2 Axle Forging Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2 Detailed Wheel Making Process: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7 Industrial challenges in manufacturing of wheels: 20
8 Wheelset maintenance: 22
9 CONCLUSION 24
References 25
 Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Railways in India are the most important mode of transport. It is the lifeline of some big
metro-cities like Mumbai, Delhi. Millions of people travel by railway everyday in India. It
can be called as the most effective and easy mode of transport. Any railway can not
move without its wheels. The wheels must be reliable and posses the required amount
of strength, so that the accidents can be avoided.
A railway wheel is one of the most important parts that support the safe operation
of railway vehicle. Wheels are the element that support the entire weight of the railway
cars, however any wheel can not be designed as a fail safe structure where a backup
system by other parts can be applied in case of serious problems. Therefore absolutely
high reliability is required in terms of strength. The most important and fundamental
characteristic in designing a wheel is strength. From the point of view advantageous
performance characteristics other than strength such as wear resistance, thermal cracks
resistance, and noise or vibration, are focused.
The manufacturing process used for manufacturing a wheel should be the best
method available. The process should provide the wheel with the required strength to
function properly. The process must include the proper heat treatment.
The maintenance of the wheels is very underestimated but very important for the
long life of wheel. Only regular maintenance can ensure the proper functioning of the
wheel over its lifetime. The wheels must be checked for any damage by properly trained
personal and with specific equipment.

Chapter 2

1
 LITERATUR

E REVIEW

Andrea Bracciali et al [1] : The author describes the history and the architecture of
trailing railway wheelsets. Improvements in the design are also described, showing
remaining unsolved criticalities. Scientific literature on the subject is also analyzed by
author, highlighting the wide importance that axles still hold. Some relevant accidents
resulting from of wheelset failures are described. A novel design of a wheelset studied
to improve safety, reduce maintenance, and reduce LCC, is introduced.
Yoshinori OKAGATA et al [2] : The author has described the essential characteristics
required for a railway wheel to work perfectly under any condition. He then describes
the parameters to be considered while designing various parts such as web, rim for a
wheel. He gave a brief description about each parameter. Graph showing some
experiment results are also provided in the paper.
Gautam Kumar Mandal et al [3] : The author has described the basic manufacturing
process which is widely followed to produce a railway wheel. The author describes
various steps such as cutting of material from ingot, forging, rolling, heat treatment to
increase wheel strength , machining on CNC, testing. The author has also tried to
describe various problem that any plant where wheels are produced can face. He has
put the challenges under four categories such as man, machine, method and material.

Chapter 3

2
History

Stephensons Rocket (Figure 3.1), built in 1829, is the locomotive that introduced many
fundamental innovations and was considered the most advanced locomotive of its day.
Focusing on the running gear architecture, the subject of this paper, two different types
of wheelset can be identified:

• the locomotive is equipped with wheelsets whose journal seats are located
betweenthe wheels, an arrangement known as inboard bearings;

• the tender is equipped with wheelsets whose journal seats are external to the
wheels,an arrangement known as outboard bearings.[1]

Figure 3.1: Stephenson’s Rocket[1]

Inboard bearings were commonly used for steam locomotives with external cylinders
for more than 150 years, as connecting and coupling rods were located external to the
frame.

3
 Also, many steam locomotives with internal cylinders, equipped with a crankshaft
for the driving axle, had external connecting rods and, therefore, inboard bearings.

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering
As steam locomotives disappeared from normal service, leaving space for electric and
diesel locomotives, the inboard bearings solution disappeared from more recent
vehicles.
Nearly all locomotives are, nowadays, equipped with outboard bearing wheelsets.

Figure 3.2: Wheelset Classification [1]

3.1 Technical description of modern trailing wheelsets Classification

A simple but effective classification is shown in Figure . The two arrangements on the
right are typical of low floor vehicles and may include a so-called axlebridge, an element
that is similar to the bridge element normally used in lorries, where it includes the
differential gearbox and the semi axles.[1]

3.1.1 Modern trailing wheelsets technical description

A trailing wheelset is conventionally intended as the appropriate combination of a

rotating axle, two wheels fitted with interference onwheel seats machined on the axle,
and two external axleboxes, including rolling bearings mounted on axle journals.
At the beginning of 20th Century, rolling bearings were also developed for railway
applications. Because of the lower resistance to motions and lower maintenance, they
soon replaced sliding bearings. The use of rolling bearing units consisting of either two
tapered rolling bearings mounted in a back-to-back, or two cylindrical rolling bearings
arranged with a common outer race, is widespread nowadays.[1]
Wheel fitting on the axle, originally obtained by heating the wheels up to around

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering
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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering

250 C which is known as shrink-fit, is nowadays almost replaced by fitting at ambient

temperature with hydraulic presses and a proper lubricant which is called cold-fit or
press-
fit.[1]
Passenger cars are normally equipped with brake discs which possess numerous
advantages compared to tread brakes, mainly a higher braking power, a lower emitted
noise, and the absence of thermal loads induced in the wheels.
With regard to wheels, the transition from tyred wheels to monobloc wheels is almost
completed nowadays, mainly for market and maintenance reasons. The development of
specific heat treatments allows it to reach compressive stresses in the rim , which are
favourable against crack propagation. The development of specific web geometry
enabled the development of so-called low residual stresses wheels that can also be used
on tread braked freight wagons.[1]
In the last thirty years, a continuously larger number of axles were produced with an
axial bore, obtaining so-called hollow axles. This solution has not only the advantage of
reducing unsprung masses by removing steel, which only slightly contributes to axle
strength, but has the very interesting feature of giving access for ultrasonic probes to
perform a non-intrusive NDT of the wheel seats (boretest), an area that on solid axles can
only be inspected with angled UT probes after removing paint from the axle body.[1]
Other wheelset developments worth mentioning are the many attempts to reduce
rolling noise, one of which is shown in Figure. Resistance against ballast impacts is
obtained by treating the axles with coatings made of high thickness paints. In both these
applications, the ability to inspect must be guaranteed; for example, thick protective
coatings are possible only if hollow axles are used.
The most important differences between old and modern wheelsets can then be
summarized as follows:

• use of rolling bearings

• use of tread braking almost confined to freight wagons.

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 • improvement of fretting behaviour of seats by coating.

• improvement of fatigue behaviour on free surfaces by cold rolling.

• lighter design thanks to the adoption of hollow axle.

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• better ability to inspect by UT with boretest.

• reduction of emitted rolling noise.

• ‘axle protection from ballast impacts.[1]

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering
Chapter 4

Characteristics required for wheels

Following are the Characteristics required for wheels :

1. Weight : Wheels are unsprang parts; therefore lightweight is preferable from

theviewpoints of their influence over riding comfort and bogie parts. This
characteristics is especially important when designing high speed vehicles.

2. Web fatigue strength : A web must have sufficient fatigue strength to

withstandcyclic mechanical stress caused by the weight of the car body.

3. Rolling contact fatigue strength of tread: Sufficient fatigue strength to

withstandthe rolling contact stress (Heartz stress) between the tread and rail is
necessary.

4. Characteristics of stress alternation caused by thermal attach : When a rim

expandsbecause of thermal input caused by tread breaking, thermal stress is
developed at the web and rim areas. Sometimes the excessive thermal input
changes the normal stress distribution given by the production stage into an
abnormal situation.

5. Thermal crack and fracture resistance : This is the characteristic relating to

thermal cracks initiated on a rim by frictional heat generated by tread break and
their propagation. In worst case, will fracture takes place.

6. Wear resistance: Abrasion/Wear is developed on a tread when it is in contact

withrail. In case of tread break will it is also developed by the friction between
break shoe and the tread. This is the characteristic directly related to wheel life.
In some cases, non uniform wear becomes problematic rather than the wear
amount itself.

7. Running performance : Running stability on a straight track and curving

performance are to be evaluated basically from view point of the whole
performance of bogie. However the tread profile is one of those factors.

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8. Acoustic characteristics : Reduction of wheel running noise is required from
theview point of environmental demand. There are several approaches such as
improvement of bogie structure or oil lubrication on rails. As for the
countermeasures taken for wheels, noise dumping wheels fitted with sound
absorbers are generally employed.

9. Vibration : Vibration caused by wheel is basically classified as the one caused

bydamages on tread and the other caused by imbalance of a wheel. The formal is
influence by the above mentioned rolling contact fatigue strength and the wear
resistance of the tread. The latter, balanced characteristic, generally depends on
the machining accuracy at manufacture and/ or maintenance. This characteristic
is important for wheels of high speed vehicles in particular.

10. Axel gripping force : this is the characteristics the fix a wheel on to an axel
formally.However there is no problem in general when interference and press
fitting force are properly control as per regulations.[2]

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering
Chapter 5

Designing of Wheels

5.1 Structure Of Wheels

A solid wheel of a railway vehicle consists of three parts, as shown in figure 5.1. They
include a hub, wherein an axel is inserted, a rim that contacts the rail, and a web that
unites the two parts. The outer circumferential surface of the rim, which contacts the
rail, is tread, and the projected part is flange.

Figure 5.1: Structure of Wheel[2]

5.2 Designing Of Web

Designing of web is done on the following three criteria.

1. Designing of web configuration under the mechanical loads.

2. Fatigue strength of web material.

3. Relationship between web configuration and thermal stress distribution caused

bybreaking.][2]
5.2.1 Designing of web configuration under the mechanical loads

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There are two kinds of mechanical loads exerted on to a wheel: Vertical load and
horizontal load. As shown in figure 5.2 vertical load is produced by supporting the car
weight in vertical direction. Regarding the horizontal load there are two kinds: Lateral
load and Back load. The lateral load is continuously produced when passing the curved
track, it is the most critical load in designing the strength of the web.[2]

Figure 5.2: Position and direction of mechanical loads[2]

5.2.2 Types Of Web Configuration

The web configuration of the wheels for domestic services is classified into three
typesType A, Type B, and Type Cas. Type A wheel has a concaved web as shown in a); on
the other hand, Type B wheel has a convex web, as shown in b). Type C wheel has a
straight web that is perpendicular to the axle, as shown in c).
The maximum stress in the web is generated at the hub fillet. However, as shown in
the figures, since the arm length of Type A (La in the figure) is shorter than that of Type
B (Lb), the bending moment of Type A is less than that of Type B even when the loading
conditions are the same. In other words, the web configuration of Type A is superior with
respect to strength. Therefore, Type A configuration is most widely employed, regardless
of whether domestically or overseas, unless restricted otherwise.[2]

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering

Figure 5.3: Comparison of bending moments[2]

5.2.3 Fatigue strength of web

As mentioned above, cyclic mechanical stress is exerted on the web; therefore, the web
material must have sufficient fatigue strength to withstand the stress cycle. As for the
web fatigue strength of wheels for domestic service, the Railway Technical Research
Institute, JNR, reported the result of a fatigue test conducted in 1958.5) According to
the results, the allowable stress 157 MPa (16 kgf/mm2) has been applied to the web
design.[2]
In the abovementioned JRIS J 0450, a standard for designing domestic wheels, it is
specified that the allowable design stress is 160 MPa. This value was determined on the
basis of the value of 157 MPa, which has been applied for many years. Because the
actually measured value of 240 MPa is 1.5 times of this value, in other words, it can be
said that the above allowable designing stress has a safety factor of 1.5.[2]

5.2.4 Relationship between web configuration and thermal stress distribution caused by

braking

When braking is applied via brake shoes pressed onto a wheel tread, temperature of the
tread increases because of friction. Normal braking for the usual stop operation has
almost no influence on the performance of the wheel. However, drag braking when
running a long downhill or a stuck brake shoe due to malfunction of a braking system

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heats the whole rim section to a high temperature. Because of the thermal expansion of
the rim, the rim pulls the web outward, and then tensile radial stress is generated in the
web area.
When this thermal radial stress exceeds the yield stress of the web material, outward
plastic deformation of the web takes place. After the brake shoe is released and the
wheel is cooled, the rim tends to shrink; however, the expanded web disturbs the rim to
shrink. As a result, the web pushes the rim outwardly, and then causes the tensile stress
in the rim. When manufacturing the wheels, compressive residual stress is originally
given by heat treatment. However, in the case as mentioned above, this initial residual
stress changes from the compression side to the tension side. This is the reversal change
in the rim residual stress. Once this happens, small thermal cracks on the tread surface
start to propagate and result in a brittle fracture of a wheel in the worst case.
Accordingly, stress in this situation is very dangerous. Fig shows the above process
graphically.[2]
However, according to studies conducted in 1970s, it was found that this change in
residual stress can be controlled by improving the web configuration. The key parameter
is the web offset. As clear from the graph in the figure 5.4, when the web offset is
increased, thermal stress of the web is decreased. This means that the web offset can
reduce the plastic deformation of the web because of yielding. Therefore, the shrinking
of the rim is not disturbed by the web when cooling, and consequently, the reversal
change in the residual stress in the rim does not occur. A wheel developed on the basis
of this concept was named High Toughness (HT) wheel.[2]

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Figure 5.4: Thermal stress of web depending on web offset[2]

5.3 Designing of Rim
Wear characteristic of tread directly influences the life of a wheel; therefore, it is a very
important characteristic from the viewpoint of economy, namely maintenance cost. The
major factor that influences the wear characteristic is the carbon content. The higher
the carbon content, the higher the wear resistance. However, higher carbon content
tends to increase thermal damage; therefore, overseas standards of wheel materials
generally specify several steel grades from lower to higher carbon content.[2]
In case of a wheel with tread brake, even under normal braking condition, initiation
of very fine thermal cracks at the tread surface layer cannot be avoided because of cyclic
heating and cooling. Generally, the higher the hardenability of a material, the more
thermal cracks are initiated; therefore, lower carbon content is preferable from the
viewpoint of preventing thermal cracks.
As mentioned above, low carbon material has better thermal crack resistance and
fracture toughness, but has less resistance against wear. Accordingly, in selecting wheel
material, an appropriate level of carbon content is to be selected on the basis of the
braking condition in service and the actual situation of maintenance.[2]

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 Chapter 6

Process Of Making Of Wheel And Axle

6.1 Methods

6.1.1 Wheel Making Process

Wheels are produced in following basic steps:

• Cutting of steel ingots into pieces (blocks/cheese) using Band Saws

• Rough shaping of wheel by pressing of hot block at 63 12 MN Press

• Final shaping by rolling and dishing at Rolling Mill 20 MN Dishing Press

• Heat treatment of black wheels at HT Section

• Machining of heat treated wheels by CNC Machines

Specially-cast ingots (Fluted or Round) of special grade steel are sent to Plant. After
necessary dressing of ingot (removal of fins etc. by gas cutting) these are cut into small
cylindrical pieces (called as block/cheese) by Band Saws. Then the blocks are heated in
rotary hearth furnace for 6-8 hours to a temperature of around 1300 degrees.The heated
blocks are de-scaled and fed to 63/12 MN Press for forging punching. After this, black
wheels are treated in batch type reheating furnace to 1150 degrees. The wheel is then
rolled in a computerized wheel mill, where wheels achieve proper profiles dimension in
step by step.After rolling, the wheels are fed to a 20 MN Dishing Press, where the web
profile is achieved.

6.1.2 Axle Forging Process

Axles are produced in following basic steps:

• Receiving of Axle blooms

• Inspection Testing of received Axle blooms

• Gas cutting of Axle blooms into desired lengths for forging

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering

• Heating Soaking of gas cut blooms into reheating furnace

• Shaping of axle through forging of soaked blooms at pneumatic forging hammer

• Stamping of identification no. on forged axle

• Heat treatment of forged axles

• End cutting of axles for ultrasonic testing

• Ultrasonic Testing of heat treated axles

• Sending black axles for Machining by outside agency or supply of black axles to
Railway[3]

6.2 Detailed Wheel Making Process:

From process flow of Wheel and Axle production streams the difficulty levels, complicacy
and speciality can be assumed. As Axle production is much easier process than wheel
making process, our main focus is on Wheel. Details of Wheel making process are
elaborated further below:

STEPS:

1. Cutting of Wheel Blocks from Steel Ingots Wheel ingots (fluted/round) of 14 16

diameter and 2m-2.5m length made of special grade steel are cut into
blocks/cheese by Band Saws at Mill, Providing Section of steel ingot for further
processing i.e. forging and machining.

2. Wheel Forging Process Wheel Forging is the process where actually a wheel
takesits primary shape from the steel block and also undergoes the infantry stage
of getting desired primary shape for further journey. Therefore, this is an
important area in Wheel manufacturing process, where all sorts of precaution care
are required to be taken cautiously for smooth operations of the wheel before it
is sent for machining for finishing operations.[3]

But, quite some time, this important area is reported to be under-performing and
has of late developed serious problems like:

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Figure 6.1: Round Ingot[3]

Figure 6.2: Forged Wheel[3]

• Poor output.

• Low utilization of available time.

• Huge loss of operation time due to frequent break-downs of vital

equipment.[3]

3. Rolling Process at Wheel Mill Forged wheel is taken from 63/12MN Forging
cumPunching Press by Mobile Charger and placed in Furnace for re-heating to raise
the rolling temperature for rolling in Wheel Mill. From Furnace, hot wheel sent to
Wheel Mill by same charger for rolling and a final shape (profile) in obtained.

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Figure 6.3: Rolled Wheels[3]

The rolled wheel is then taken by mobile charger to put on Dishing Press for
dishing. Dished wheel is moved to Stamping press for stamping this is for
identification of the wheel and after stamping the finished forged wheel is placed
on floor. Another mobile charger, moves these hot wheels to hot bed in stack of 2
wheels for air-cooling. These wheels after preliminary cooling is then moved by
crane to heat treatment area.

4. Process of Heat Treatment After getting final shape of wheel through

Forging,Rolling Dishing processes, it is then subjected to heat treatment which
includes quenching and tempering to give hard rim and tough core. This prevents
high internal stress during cooling and prevents warping of wheels.

Heat Treatment (HT) is done in two phases namely.

(a) Rim Spraying (quenching) and

(b) Tempering The sequence of heat treatment process is given below:

i. Temporary stacking at Release Bed (RB): After dishing, red hot

wheelsare placed on floor at Release Bed as stacks of two wheels for
primary cooling purposes.

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ii. Temporary stacking at Hot Stacking Bed (HSB): These pairs of semi-
hotwheels are then transported to HSB by crane holding one pair at a
time and stacked haphazardly at Stacking Bed near HT Furnace.
iii. Charging to HT furnaces: There are generally 4 rotary furnaces for
HeatTreatment, out of which 3 run at a time and other remains under
shutdown. For operational convenience, out of 3 running furnaces, two
extreme end furnaces are used for Rim Spraying and middle one is used
for Tempering. On cooling, depending upon vacancy in furnaces,
Charging cars put these wheels one at a time in any of two Rotary HT
furnaces for heat treating soaking.

iv. Rim Spraying: The heated soaked wheel is than placed on Rim
SprayingMachine and quenched by cold water with specific time. There
are 4 Rim Spraying machines usually two for each rotary furnace.

v. Tempering: Quenched wheels are then again heated up for Tempering

inTempering Furnace (rotary furnace in the middle).

vi. Stacking for inspection: Tempered wheels are then cooled in air, trans-
ported to stacking space and stacked as black wheel and offered for test-
ing.[3]

Figure 6.4: Heat Treated Wheels[3]

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5. Machining of Heat Treated Black Wheels After heat treatment, next comes the
machining part, where rim face, boss face, rim blending, condemning glove,
chucking glove are machined by means of CNC machines. There are number of CNC
ma-
chines to do machining operation.[3]

Figure 6.5: Machined Wheels On CNC[3]

6. Testing and Despatch of OK Wheels: Finally, the wheels are subjected to

varioustests such as Ultrasonic Test, Magnetic Particle Test and BHN which are
certified by Railways own quality checking agencies.Perfect wheels are dispatched
to Railway either as loose wheels or making set with Axles. Rejected blocks/wheels
at different stages are re-melted for recycling.

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Figure 6.6: Finished Wheels[3]

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 Chapter 7

Industrial challenges in manufacturing of wheels:

Figure 7.1: Fish Bone Diagram Of Challenges In Manufacturing[3]

The problems or challenges were classified under four basic ‘Ms involved in any
production system Man, Machine, Material and Method, An Ishikawa diagram as given
below was prepared based on the information collected from various deliberations and
statistics.
Man: Role of men is most important in any production system. It is comparatively
higher in plants like Wheel Axle Plant, where unlike other process plants, production is
highly dependent on individual efforts of MAN behind the machines like the process of
block cutting, wheel rolling, wheel machining, wheel transportation and even inspection.
All these jobs are highly labour intensive. And maximum problems observed to be from
its MANPOWER resources. Situation became so worse that even the Top Managers
considered WA Plant as worthless, spoilt child and beyond repair.[3]
Machine: The line Managers opined ‘technical problems being the primary reasons.
They blamed poor condition of almost all the vital equipment in the wheel production
line namely the ageing Band Saws (fail to yield 300 nos. blocks per day), poor health of
A Furnace (frequent break-down), obsolete electronic hydraulic control system of 63 MN

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering

Forging Press, un-suitable Heat Treatment furnaces (not designed to handle special
higher diameter wheels like DLW, EMU. S-Profile etc.), the old CNC machines (lost
reliability in precision machining) being responsible for low volume and low quality
production. Shop cannot improve unless proper up-gradation and replacement are
taken up.
Method (Process): WAP management expressed that practice of hot charging in HT
furnaces was very useful not only in quality consistency and, reduction in heating cycle
time (by approx. 50%) but also helped increasing HT wheels output considerably. But
due to shortage of manpower, it had to be stopped, which has affected the output
adversely. Secondly, the practice of stringent inspection of finished wheels by RITES, an
external agency, also plays a vital role. The rejection process of RITES of wheels or even
a batch of wheels at the final stage, thereby making all efforts and time spent in these
wheel-making to zero, perhaps also needed modification in the process of inspection of
wheels.[3]
Material: Bad Quality Ingots: Quality of input ingots from SMS is a major concern of
WAP, since serious types of defects (like blow-hole, patch etc.) get identified during
inspection at various stages of production. It accounts for huge rejection of finished
wheels, sometimes even a whole batch (like UT rejection). This nullifies the actual efforts
put up by WAP collective due to none of the faults of the WAP.[3]

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 Chapter 8

Wheelset maintenance:

Maintenance is a topic which is completely missing in the list of research and

development categories mentioned in Section 3. It is obvious that although the
argument is particularly important in times of crisis, it is of low interest to the community
of researchers, although from industry.
It is a common experience that maintenance costs drive more and more railway
practices. The typical structure of the maintenance cycle of a wheelset consists of mainly
three phases:

1. regular checks in service to look for abnormal profile wear and running table
wearand RCF defects, and/or bearings overheating;

2. Wheel reprofiling by underfloor lathes in first level workshops (typically located

inlarger depots and spread over a country);

3. shipment of the entire wheelset to a second level workshop (either belonging to

theTrain Operating Company or an external mechanical workshop) for the
complete overhaul when wear has reached its maximum level (i.e. wheels cannot
be further reprofiled), running table defects cannot be rectified (e.g. too large
wheel flats) or simply because the prescribed interval (time) or life (km) run by the
wheelset has reached the limit indicated in the maintenance plan.

Second level workshops handle complete wheelsets disassembling the axleboxes,

the bearings, and the wheels from the axle and then performing VT, UT, and MT
on the axle. Old wheels are pressed off by cutting or by oil-injection methods,
whilenew wheels are fitted according to one of the aforementioned practices
(pressor shrink-fit) and then turned by conventional lathes.

It is evident that this maintenance scheme is well functioning but forces the
moving of heavy and bulk wheelsets to specialized workshops where expensive
tools and equipment are needed (heating ovens / hydraulic presses, large size
lathes).

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Manufacturing Process Of Train Wheels Department Of Production Engineering

The total absence of literature in this subject leads us to suppose that there is a
sort of resignation: wheelset maintenance is expensive, time consuming, complex
to organize, involves large capital and human resources but we have done so for
almost 200 years and there is no other way to do it.[1]

Sinhgad College Of Engneering, Pune 25

 Chapter 9

CONCLUSION

Since the introduction of the solid railway wheel the steel quality of the wheel material
has been drastically improved owing to the development of continuous casting. At the
same time, design procedure of wheel configuration has been also innovated by design
tools, such as computer analysis. However, almost all materials for wheels are still plain
carbon steels. Moreover, the basic structure of the wheel has been unchanged, which
consists of the hub, web, and rim. The reason why both material and configuration have
been stable for such long years can be based on the concept of simple is the best. This
concept has arisen from the fact that the wheel plays one of the most important parts
in supporting the safety operation of the railway. Before the development of the solid
wheel, it was assembled with a tire and a wheel center. However, the reliability of the
wheel was significantly enhanced after the development of hot rolling technologies for
manufacturing the solid wheel. Therefore, there will be no drastic change in the wheel
structure in the future.Modern trailing wheelsets, although improved or refined in many
aspects, still keep the same architecture of the wheelset as was conceived at the
beginning of the railway era. wheelsets with inboard bearings will likely be more
widespread in the future. The process which is currently used to manufacture the wheel
is a very simple process. It includes forging, machining by CNC , a heat treatment process
and non destructive testing. This process is the best suitable process currently in the use.

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References

[1] ”Railway Wheelsets: History, Research and Developments” -Andrea Bracciali

[2] ”Design Technologies for Railway Wheels and Future Prospects” - Yoshinori OK-
AGATA

[3] ”Turnaround Challenges in a Manufacturing Unit” -Gautam Kumar Mandal

[4] ”Materials Used For Wheels On Rolling Stock” -Katrin Madler

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