Five tips on how to prevent train wheel wear
Several problems can affect a train wheel, impairing the quality of travel by rail trains and causing serious difficulties for the railroad companies to maintain their activities.
In this sense, it is very important to avoid wear and tear on the train wheel, checking its quality whenever possible. For this, there are some interesting ways to achieve these goals, such as maintenance of the track, wagons and the wheel itself, which we will see below.
Therefore, we selected 5 tips on how to avoid train wheel wear, exemplifying how companies can plan so that the wheels do not wear out in an undue way, avoiding financial losses and the performance of railroad trains.
Content Index
Rail maintenance
Railroad tracks are the main structures of a railroad line, as it is the composition in which trains travel on their journeys. The tracks determine the path, turns and speed of each train.
As the rails are the structures that are in direct contact with the train wheel, it is natural that it is one of the main points that can cause wear on the wheels.
If the rail is damaged, such as structural problems, especially in the part in contact with the wheels, they can end up generating this wear naturally, making it difficult for trains to move on the railroads.
In more serious cases, they form hubcaps on the wheels, which, when they come back in contact with the rails, wear out even more. If this process continues, it can cause vibrations, which end up causing loosening of parts, even resulting in derailment.
Therefore, one of the ways to prevent the train wheel from wearing out is to regularly check how the rails of a railroad are doing, carrying out constant maintenance on the trailing apparatus.
There are different ways to carry out the maintenance of the train tracks, depending on the type of problem that presents itself or the chosen maintenance step. Meet some of these types:
- Cleaning of the structure;
- Maintenance via ultrasound;
- Billet grinding
- Maintenance by welding.
Wagon maintenance
Another fundamental step to ensure the quality of the train wheel is carrying out maintenance on the train cars, which are the structures that are positioned and connected on the train wheels, putting constant pressure on them.
Thus, if the wagons also suffer from structural problems, especially the wear of parts, it can exert harmful pressure on the train wheel, damaging the entire freight transport process of the freight trains.
Therefore, the maintenance of the wagons is also essential, and there are several ways to ensure quality maintenance. There are 5 main types of wagon maintenance, which must take place according to the companies' planning. Meet:
- Corrective maintenance planned;
- Unplanned corrective maintenance;
- Preventive maintenance;
- Predictive maintenance;
- Detective maintenance.
Avoid problems with tricks
In case you didn't know, bogies are fundamental structures of a train's composition, being the component that fixes the train's wheels.
The entire weight of the trains is transferred to the wheels, due to the presence of railroad bogies, which have the main function of dividing and supporting the impacts and pressures caused by the movement of these vehicles.
With its structure damaged, due to several problems, the bogies are unable to withstand these pressures and impacts, transferring all the weight of the trains moving actions to the wheels.
In this way, with the weight of the trains' composition directly impacting the wheels, they end up wearing out, which can generate several problems for the sequence of cargo transport activities.
Therefore, checking the quality of the bogies whenever possible, verifying that they are able to withstand the impacts and pressures of the tracks, allowing the weight to be divided between this entire composition, is essential so that the wheels do not wear out in an undue way.
Overweight
In this same sense, the excess weight of wagons is one of the points that directly impacts if the train will suffer from problems in its composition, especially the train wheels.
It is precisely for this reason that all railroads have limitations on the amount of weight of wagons and transported cargo, according to the track rail.
If the wagons and the loads exceed the limit weights of the track, it is possible that this creates problems for the entire train composition, including the train wheels, as the line rails were not engineered to withstand this type of pressure and weight upon them.
That is why the presence of railroad scales is so important on railroad lines, especially the dynamic scale.
With a proper weighing scale, trains are weighed during movement and the data is quickly sent to a control center, which examines and determines whether the weighing is in accordance with track standards.
Thus, having a quality weighing scale on the track is one of the ways to avoid major wear on the train wheels.
Maintenance of the wheels themselves
Even if train wheels suffer from structural problems, for these reasons mentioned above and others, it is possible to work around this situation, ensuring that they are able to continue acting as a fundamental part of the movement of the trains.
For this, it is essential that the companies involved in this process carry out the necessary maintenance on the train wheels, eliminating possible structural problems, which can be several, such as:
- Calluses;
- Thin frieze;
- High or vertical frieze;
- Burrs and burrs.
Para cada um desses problemas, as empresas podem executar uma manutenção que se adeque a essa necessidade. Claro, isso exige um amplo aparato instrumental, visto que, as rodas, bem como outras estruturas dos trens de cargas, são complexos e necessitam de atuações precisas e adequadas para cada tipo de problema.
Uma das maneiras de executar manutenções nas rodas do trem, é através do torneamento das rodas. Quando as rodas apresentam desgastes estruturais, elas são posicionadas em uma máquina de torno, que vão efetuando a rebarbação da parte externa desse aparato, devolvendo a sua formação natural e permitindo que elas voltem a ser utilizadas nos trens ferroviários.
Conclusion on train wheel maintenance
As we have seen, there are several problems that can cause wear on the train wheel, and it is essential to avoid them. One of these ways is to place quality dynamic railroad scales on the track and, in this regard, the Dynamic Scale from Massa Pesagem e Automação is a reference in the market.
