Abstract
The paper describes an innovative technological solution for producing balls from scrap rail heads. The proposed method consists in performing the following operations: the side pressing of a rail head to increase shape compactness, a process for forming a cylindrical rod by cross-wedge rolling (CWR), a CWR process for producing balls that have a diameter which is by 35% larger than that of the billet, quenching of the produced balls. Tools for the above manufacturing operations are designed, and numerical simulations are performed to verify whether the assumptions of the proposed technique are correct. A flat-wedge reversing mill is designed and constructed that enables performing the two abovementioned rolling operations without idle running, which makes the design innovative on a global scale. The implementation of the proposed method would enable producing balls for grinding media used in ball mills.
Highlights
Balls are used on a mass scale as grinding media in ball mills
Balls are produced by open die and die forging processes, helical rolling, and cross-wedge rolling process as well as casting [1,2,3,4]
This paper describes an innovative method for producing balls from scrap railway rail heads
Summary
Balls are used on a mass scale as grinding media in ball mills. They are used for grinding dry and wet materials in cement plants, lime factories, or metallurgical plants. Used to produce balls with a diameter range 60 - 80 mm, the die forging process uses scrap railway rail heads as billet [5]. The manufacture of balls by cross-wedge rolling leads to increased efficiency, reduced material consumption, reduced noise and vibration, and decreased use of lubricants. The proposed method is based on the cross-wedge rolling process. To implement this method, it was necessary to solve a number of problems, the most important being the following: the formation of a long cylindrical shaft from billet with a cross section other than circular, the manufacture of a ball described by a diameter which is by 35% bigger than that of the billet, the design of a specialist machine enabling the execution of the two aforementioned rolling processes. The above problems were solved using computer software for numerical modeling of forming processes
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