Hardness of overhead crane wheels and gantry crane wheels

25 May, 2017

crane wheel hardness is one factor influences the crane wheel working life. Dongqi offers overhead crane wheels and gantry crane wheels to meet all you needs for crane wheels. Check how crane wheel hardness affects crane wheel lifecycle now.

crane wheels for sale

Crane wheels for sale

Crane wheel hardness is one factory influences the crane wheel working life. Dongqi offers overhead crane wheels and gantry crane wheels to meet all you needs for crane wheels. Check how crane wheel hardness affects crane wheel lifecycle now.

double girder gantry crane parts assembly
Semi -gantry crane parts assembly
Manual gantry crane parts assembly

Single girder overhead crane parts assembly
Double girder overhead crane parts assembly
FEM overhead crane parts assembly

Types of crane wheels

Crane wheels are the most important parts in crane traveling system which are also the most vulnerable crane parts due to the friction between crane wheels and rail. Therefore, the crane wheels should be replaced when the flange wear, flange breakage and fatigue pitting happened. Usually, the crane wheels can be classified into double flange crane wheels, single flange crane wheel, and non-flange crane wheels, etc.

Double flange crane wheels

Double flange crane wheel and crane wheel drawing

Single flange crane wheels

Single flange crane wheel and crane wheel drawing

Non-flange crane wheels

non-flang crane wheel and crane wheel drawing

What influences the “toughness” of overhead crane wheels?

The hardness of crane wheels raw material

Generally, the crane wheels are made of the raw materials, such as alloys, low-carbon steel or medium-carbon steel.
Medium-carbon steel is the most commonly used raw material in the crane wheel production because of the wide availability and lower cos

The heat treating techniques used to enhance the metal’s hardness.

Due to advances in heat treating technology, the hardness of crane wheels made with medium-carbon steel has been increasing, which counts most at crane wheel tread and location where the tread meets the rail.

The production techniques: forging crane wheels or casting crane wheels?

Forging crane wheels or casting crane wheels?

Forging crane wheels is much stronger. Forging crane wheels maintains consistent strength, consistent grain flow, and directional strength which can be seen the metallurgical defects easily during the process of forging.
Forging crane is more reliable. Forging crane wheels has higher reliability for the following reasons: 1)During the production, the grain pattern is refined. 2)The strength of the crane wheels is maximized by producing grain flow orientation. 3) The forging crane wheel is 26% higher in tensile strength, and 37% high in fatigue strength, according to third party research.

Note: Higher the hardness, the better the crane wheel?

It is true that A hardened crane wheel tread reduces wear and extends the life of crane wheels. However, here comes the question:

Is higher the hardness, the better the crane wheels?
No.

When the crane wheel hardness exceeds 65Rockwell “C”, the crane wheel might be “too hard”, and becomes brittle and has the potential to crack if it comes in contact with part of the rail that has missing pieces or other sharp objects.What’s more, the top of wheel flange and the outer part of flange should not be hardened for ductility is needed so that they can bend without break when experiencing the lateral forces, i.e. misaligned rail. The inner side of crane wheel flange is to maintain the same depth and hardness as the tread to maximize the wheel life.
It is important to measure, the crane wheel’s depth of hardness. When hardening doesn’t go deep into the wheel tread, the crane wheel is subject to spalling—that is, metal fragments breaking off the surface, shortening a crane wheel’s life.

A wheel’s lifespan depends on more than hardness alone.

The crane wheels,whichmake direct contact with the crane runway, can be the weakest link of the crane. Usually,, crane wheels are the first crane parts to show the effects of crane problems, such as misaligned rails or un-squared crane.
Periodic inspection of overhead cranes and gantry cranes, including the crane wheels, will detect premature wheel wear and provide clues to correct problems before they can cause substantial damage.
The thickness of crane wheel flanges is recommend to be measured and documented the rate of wear between inspections can be tracked.

Dongqi Hoist and Crane can provide you the following crane wheels service:

1. Crane wheels with advanced design and supervised quality are at your choices.
2. Wide range of crane wheels with the diameters of 150mm to 900mm (6” to 36”) are at your services.
3. Various kinds of crane wheels are provided, such as, single and double flange wheels, forging and casting wheels, etc.
4. Customized crane wheels are available at Dongqi Hoist and Crane.

Crane wheels is designed for your customized application. How can you get ideal crane wheels for your overhead crane or gantry crane? Dongqi Crane shows you crane wheel design and crane wheels production. Demag Crane has selected us. Why not you use our Crane Wheels?