China’s continuous industrialization never seems to slow down for long, as the recent start-up and commissioning of a wheel-making line reminds us. Taiyuan Heavy Industry Railway Transit Equipment, one of numerous business units organized under the Taiyuan Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. holding company, late last year commissioned a new SMS Meer-built line designed to produce 350,000 railway wheels annually – aiming to supply growing demand from that country’s high-speed rail network.
Ren Xue Yi, vice president of Taiyuan Heavy Industry Railway Transit Equipment, described the new installation as “an international, top-class rolling and forging line.”
The ERWA 5000/10000/1250/5000 line is installed at the manufacturing complex in Taiyuan, in Shanxi Province. Among the holding company’s many engineered products are various types of forgings, including shapes used for power stations (rotors, main shafts for wind turbines, guard rings and impellers, etc.), marine forgings (crankshaft blanks, output shafts, etc.), gear forgings, and series lifting hooks.
SMS Meer developed and supplied much of the production process for railway wheels, including:
• A descaling unit;
• Two wheel blank presses with 50- and 100-MN press force; and,
• A wheel rolling machine, and
• The dishing and piercing press.
Also, SMS Meer supplied a marking unit for inscribing of the wheels and a contact- less 3D laser measuring machine. Finally, it supplied six manipulators for coordinating activity within the wheel rolling line.
The finished products are steel wheels with tread diameters ranging from 700 to 1,250 millimeters.
“With the support of their team and their conscientious efforts and after more than two years' work, the world's most advanced and most intelligent rolling and forging line for high-speed wheels is now in operation,” Ren stated.
“All the processes within the line run fully automatically and in parallel,” according to the contracting group’s official, Martin Gellhaus. “The 15 CNC-controlled axes of the web rolls, pressure roll, and side rolls, roll and guide the wheel blank – without a mandrel. This innovative wheel rolling technology is setting standards on the market,” says Martin Gellhaus from SMS Meer.
