The Difference Between Forged Wheels and Cast Wheels for Cranes

The crane wheel is the only place where the crane is in contact with the track. It plays the role of supporting the crane load and running transmission. It is one of the important accessories of the crane. The quality of the wheel is related to the length of the crane's operating life. According to different production processes, crane wheels can be simply divided into two types: forged wheels and cast wheels. These two types of wheels are widely used on cranes. So, how exactly are they different? And how to choose the right wheel? We discuss these issues from five aspects:

1. Processing technology

The forged wheel adopts a forging process. Generally, the raw material is a 65Mn billet. By heating and forging, the billet is plastically deformed to form a wheel, so as to obtain a tight structure and good mechanical properties. It is a process from solid to solid. the process of.

Casting wheels adopt a casting process, which refers to heating and melting the raw material bread iron, then pouring molten steel into a pre-made mold, cooling and forming, and obtaining a nodular cast iron wheel. It is a process from solid to liquid and then to solid.

2. Other processes

The forged wheel set can optimize the microstructure and properties of metal blanks and eliminate microstructure defects through forging machinery. After the forgings are cooled, they must be subjected to rough machining, heat treatment, hardness testing, and finishing.

Casting wheels is the process of casting molten metal into a mold to obtain a casting. The interior of the casting is spheroidized, and production steps such as sand removal, shot blasting, and grinding are also required.

3. Molding speed

The forming speed of forged wheels is relatively slow, and requires high technical requirements for production equipment and workers. Forging requires repeated forging under the action of a forging hammer before it can be formed step by step. But the process of forging can make the metal structure more compact.

The molding speed of the cast wheel is fast, and the mold cavity can be produced in large quantities, and then cast in one time. However, during the casting production process, the interior of the casting is very prone to porosity.

4. Comprehensive performance and price

Forged wheels have a compact structure, good toughness and strength, and can be subjected to various heat treatments to obtain better mechanical properties. The outstanding features of forged wheels are light weight, good heat dissipation, high strength, strong impact resistance, not easy to break after impact, higher safety, strong plasticity, and can be customized at will. However, the production and processing costs of forged wheels are relatively high, and the production cycle is relatively long.

Cast wheels are brittle in performance, weak in impact resistance, and cannot be heat treated, with low strength and low hardness. But the price is low and the production cycle is short.

5. Scope of application

The overall performance of forged wheels is better, so it is more suitable for various types of medium or heavy crane equipment, such as metallurgical cranes, explosion-proof cranes, etc., and can play a role in relatively harsh working environments.

The overall performance of cast wheels is slightly worse, and it is suitable for light cranes, such as small stock yards, overhead cranes used in production workshops, etc., which meet the requirements of use and are economical.