Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited has flagged off first consignment of LHB wheels to Indian Railways from Forged Wheel Plant Lalganj at Rae Bareli. These LHB wheels having unique web profile with metallurgical properties are specially designed to befit the high speed movement on broad gauge as per the requirements of LHB coaches. The LHB wheels have pneumatic disc brake system for efficient braking at higher speeds reducing the impact during accidents or emergency situations. Due to the new design, Indian Railway expects to significantly improve the safety of railway traffic Earlier, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam had made first dispatch of 51 nos Loco wheels from Forged Wheel Plant Lalganj at Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh to Lucknow Workshop of Indian Railways on 22 December 2021. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has set up the said Forged Wheel Plant at a cost of around INR 1,700 crore with a production capacity of 100,000 pieces of forged wheels per annum on assured off take of 80% wheels by Railways on Cost Plus model. German SMS Group was awarded the contract as consortium leader in 2016 to supply the plant on a turnkey basis. The supplier consortium consists of SMS group and Niles-Simmons-Hegenscheidt Chemnitz of Germany. SMS group provided the buildings including equipment, infrastructure, water management and transformer station. Furthermore, SMS supplies the wheel rolling line with billet saw plant, billet storage and billet heating machine. Wheels, QT system and mechanical contour machining units are provided by NSH. The fully automatic plant will produce wheels with diameters from 720 to 1,200 millimeters. The bars up to nine meters long produced in the continuous casting process are first shortened by two billet saws to the length designated for the respective wheels. Behind the sawing machine the billets are taken over by an automatic gantry crane and put into temporary billet storage. An infeed conveyor transports the billets to the rotary hearth furnace which homogeneously heats up to 22 tons of billets per hour before forging. The furnace may be operated with either propane or natural gas. After heating, another conveyor transports the hot billets to the forging line. In a second step, the billet is formed in a press with a pressing force of 9,000 tons to a wheel blank and is then rolled out in an automated process on the wheel rolling machine (type DRAW 1250) to its full diameter. In the process, 13 CNC-controlled axes act simultaneously on a vertically rotating wheel. The rolling process is followed by piercing of the pin bore and final shaping of the web area, the so-called dishing. This process takes place in two stages in the piercing and dishing press with a pressing force of 5,000 tons. After measuring the wheel the contours are machined. In a final step, a testing system makes sure that the quality standards of RDSO are met.
Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited has flagged off first consignment of LHB wheels to Indian Railways from Forged Wheel Plant Lalganj at Rae Bareli. These LHB wheels having unique web profile with metallurgical properties are specially designed to befit the high speed movement on broad gauge as per the requirements of LHB coaches. The LHB wheels have pneumatic disc brake system for efficient braking at higher speeds reducing the impact during accidents or emergency situations. Due to the new design, Indian Railway expects to significantly improve the safety of railway traffic Earlier, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam had made first dispatch of 51 nos Loco wheels from Forged Wheel Plant Lalganj at Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh to Lucknow Workshop of Indian Railways on 22 December 2021. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has set up the said Forged Wheel Plant at a cost of around INR 1,700 crore with a production capacity of 100,000 pieces of forged wheels per annum on assured off take of 80% wheels by Railways on Cost Plus model. German SMS Group was awarded the contract as consortium leader in 2016 to supply the plant on a turnkey basis. The supplier consortium consists of SMS group and Niles-Simmons-Hegenscheidt Chemnitz of Germany. SMS group provided the buildings including equipment, infrastructure, water management and transformer station. Furthermore, SMS supplies the wheel rolling line with billet saw plant, billet storage and billet heating machine. Wheels, QT system and mechanical contour machining units are provided by NSH. The fully automatic plant will produce wheels with diameters from 720 to 1,200 millimeters. The bars up to nine meters long produced in the continuous casting process are first shortened by two billet saws to the length designated for the respective wheels. Behind the sawing machine the billets are taken over by an automatic gantry crane and put into temporary billet storage. An infeed conveyor transports the billets to the rotary hearth furnace which homogeneously heats up to 22 tons of billets per hour before forging. The furnace may be operated with either propane or natural gas. After heating, another conveyor transports the hot billets to the forging line. In a second step, the billet is formed in a press with a pressing force of 9,000 tons to a wheel blank and is then rolled out in an automated process on the wheel rolling machine (type DRAW 1250) to its full diameter. In the process, 13 CNC-controlled axes act simultaneously on a vertically rotating wheel. The rolling process is followed by piercing of the pin bore and final shaping of the web area, the so-called dishing. This process takes place in two stages in the piercing and dishing press with a pressing force of 5,000 tons. After measuring the wheel the contours are machined. In a final step, a testing system makes sure that the quality standards of RDSO are met.
