Abstract
Owing to high speeds and heavy loads, the wheels of trains and locomotives undergo gradual but significant damage. Conventionally, these damaged wheels are repaired using the rotatory repair method; however, this approach results in large amounts of material waste. To address this issue, in this study, laser cladding remanufacturing technology was employed to repair a damaged wheel. The contact stress and creep characteristics of the cladded wheel were determined using Simpack, a dynamic simulation software program. The existing damage function model, which is based on the wear number, was modified, and this modified model was used to perform damage assessments for the remanufactured wheel. Furthermore, a life evaluation model for wheels remanufactured using this laser cladding technology was established. The service life of the cladded wheel calculated using this model was in good agreement with the design life of the wheel.
Highlights
With the rapid development of China’s rail transit industry, the demand for rail transit mobile equipment is currently increasing
Laser cladding technology is widely employed in the fields of machinery, aviation, and aerospace and employed in biomedical applications. An example of these purposes is the increase of material properties, such as the wear resistance [1], the corrosion resistance [2], the surface hardness [3], or the toughness [4] of the materials generated, among others
Yangxi et al [18] studied the wear problem of a high-speed train wheelset repaired via laser cladding and determined the optimal process parameters for the orthogonal test. eir study showed that the hardness and wear resistance of the cladding specimens were improved considerably
Summary
With the rapid development of China’s rail transit industry, the demand for rail transit mobile equipment is currently increasing. Most of this research is limited to the laboratory stage; far, none of the previous studies have directly applied laser cladding technology for repairing locomotive and vehicle wheelsets To address this gap in literature, in this study, laser cladding was used to remanufacture a damaged wheel. Length of straight line (m) Length of easing curve (m) Length of circular curve (m) Curve radius (m) Elevation of outer rail (m)
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