Selecting optimal configurations of optical schemes for solving the problem of railway wheels laser thermal treatment

Abstract

At the time of stable industrial growth the operating efficiency of railways in Russia is becoming more and more important nowadays. The main expenses of Russian Railways are related to the heavy wear of wheels contact surfaces when interacting with the rails. Russian railways use many ways to deal with this problem, such as the reduction of the coefficient of friction – lubrication, the use of optimal ratio of wheels and rails hardness, the use of plasma hardening and others. The authors of this article analyzed various optical circuit configurations that can be used with fiber lasers to provide thermal treatment of railway wheels.At the time of stable industrial growth the operating efficiency of railways in Russia is becoming more and more important nowadays. The main expenses of Russian Railways are related to the heavy wear of wheels contact surfaces when interacting with the rails. Russian railways use many ways to deal with this problem, such as the reduction of the coefficient of friction – lubrication, the use of optimal ratio of wheels and rails hardness, the use of plasma hardening and others. The authors of this article analyzed various optical circuit configurations that can be used with fiber lasers to provide thermal treatment of railway wheels.