Study on wear and RCF performance of repaired damage railway wheels: Assessing laser cladding to repair local defects on wheels

Investigation on wear and rolling contact fatigue of wheel-rail materials under various wheel/rail hardness ratio and creepage conditions

“…The wheel-rail interface acts as a vital role in the operating safety and service performance of a railway network. Wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) are two common forms of damage, which often exists on the wheel-rail surfaces [1]. The effects of a single factor, such as the operating speed and the axle load, on the wear and RCF characteristics of wheel-rail steels were studied in previous reports [2][3][4].…”

A Review on Wear Between Railway Wheels and Rails Under Environmental Conditions

“…Tensile residual stress near the surface will assist fatigue crack initiation and propagation while compressive residual stress will have the negative effect. Laser cladding could also be an effective technique to repair and maintain surface damaged wheels while the bonding interface between the cladding and bulk materials is very critical [122]. Practically, repairing wheels by laser cladding can be carried out in workshops, which might be more flexible and cost-effective than repairing rails.…”

On the Processing Feasibility, Microstructure Evolution, and Mechanical Properties of Laser Clad Stellite® 21 Alloy

“…They are capable of functioning in high-temperature environments without compromising their high hardness and wear resistance (Ref 7 , 8 ). In particular, Stellite ® 21 is one of the typical materials used to greatly reduce wear because of its high strength (Ref 9 ), which also exhibits better erosion–corrosion behaviors than most of the stainless steels (Ref 10 ). Therefore, Stellite ® 21 has been used in conventional hardfacing processes to create excellent metallurgical bonded and thick coatings, to make the best of its wear resistance advantages (Ref 11 , 12 ).…”

“…Considering the coating quality of the laser clad Stellite ® 21 deposit, parameter optimisation is of vital importance to help control defects such as pores and cracks initiated (Ref 9 ). In addition, the fast solidification rate during laser cladding introduces a fine network of dendrites and associated undissolved fine carbides in the melt pools of the Co matrix (Ref 6 ).…”