Recent developments in forged railroad wheels for improved performance

The service environment for North American railroad wheels is more demanding than ever due to higher freight car gross rail load (GRL), greater locomotive horsepower, more efficient equipment utilization and faster train speeds. Wheel manufacturers are therefore working diligently to improve product quality and in service product performance. This paper describes various efforts by a forged railroad wheel manufacturer to improve wheel chemistries and designs to deal with the increased service demands. Testing of Standard Steel's H36 wheels in 315,000 pounds GRL service at the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI). Facility for accelerated testing (FAST) is reviewed. New wheel designs for the H36 freight car wheel are discussed, with emphasis on reduction of thermal and mechanical stresses. Production of micro-alloy freight car wheels (with a main goal of reducing thermal-mechanical shelling in service) is reviewed along with production of high-cleanliness wheels manufactured using vacuum arc remelt (VAR) technology. Use of micro-alloying to improve locomotive wheel toughness is also described. Finally, production issues associated with manufacturing the TTCI-patented anti-spalling freight car wheels are discussed.