Bengaluru: The Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) at Bengaluru's Yelahanka is all set to commission a new forging line to manufacture axles inside its premises. Trial runs are presently on before its launch at the factory that supplies axles and wheel sets for Indian Railways.
A senior RWF official told The New Indian Express, “The objective is to enhance the production of axles massively. At present, we are readying 70,000 axles at our plant. Our capacity will more than double to 1.6 lakh axles when the new unit is in place. However, the Forging unit will only produce rough axles. We will be commissioning our Machining unit in July 2023. The full impact on our operations will be felt only then.”
One forging line and two machining lines already exist at RWF. It manufactures wheel sets (two wheels held together by an axle) for Indian Railways and has also bagged the contract to supply axles for the Vande Bharat trains. “We are having hundreds of wheels ready presently but there are not enough axles to assemble them together into wheel sets. When our axle production is boosted, we will be able to be ready wheel sets much faster,” he adds.
These wheel sets are for wagon manufacturers largely based in the eastern part of the country. It includes container wagons too. “As part of infrastructure push, Railway Board is looking at procuring 1,00,000 wagons over a three-year period to augment the freight capacity in the country. This has translated into an unprecedented demand for wheel sets from RWF,” a source said.
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Elaborating on the technical aspects of the manufacturing process, another official said, “Axles are made up of steel and forged on Computer-controlled fully automated long forging machine at around 1200 degrees centigrade. To attain the required properties, they are heat treated. Axles that are meant for loco operations are quenched to attain requisite properties. After cooling it is sent for machining.”
The machining is done on a battery of special purpose computer-controlled machining centres. “The finished axles and wheels from wheel shop are assembled together on an automated wheel mounting press,” he explained.