“A wheel set can be cleaned in as little as 15 minutes.”

“No more noise, dust and pungent odors!”

“The cleaning is very clean and does not damage the substrate.”

The function of the wheelset is to ensure the running and steering of the train on the rails, bear all static and dynamic loads from the train, transfer them to the rails, and transfer the load caused by uneven lines to the various components of the train.

After a train has been running for a certain period of time, the wheelset will become "fatigued". If there is a problem with the wheelset, it will cause serious and vicious safety accidents such as train disconnection, derailment or subversion, with disastrous consequences.

Therefore, after the wheelset has been running for a period of time, it must be inspected and maintained to ensure its "health".

For the cleaning of train wheelsets in the rail transit industry, Lasermach can create professional laser cleaning equipment and customized solutions for customers. It effectively solves the problem of paint, rust and cleaning of the front wheelset for flaw detection, ensures the safety and stability of the train's journey of tenthousands of kilometers, and escorts the safety of railway transportation.

Lasermach Laser Cleaning Technology Has the Following Significant Highlights:

• Automated assembly line: The laser cleaning machine can be grafted onto a mature production line to implement remote control and cleaning, which can realize the automation of the equipment and form a complete product operating system and intelligent control.
• Accurate positioning: Optical fiber transmission is used to guide the laser to make it flexible. The built-in scanning galvanometer controls the light spot to move at high speed, which facilitates non-contact laser cleaning of the corners that are difficult to reach with traditional cleaning methods.
• No damage: The beam emitted by the laser is absorbed by the surface of the object to form an extremely expanding plasma, which generates a shock wave. The shock wave turns the contaminants into fragments and is removed. The entire cleaning process causes no damage to the substrate.
• No pollution: No chemical cleaning agents are required, and no cleaning waste liquid is produced. The pollutant particles and gases generated during the laser cleaning process can be collected and purified by a simple portable exhaust fan to avoid environmental pollution.
• Silent and environmentally friendly: Compared with traditional mechanical grinding and cleaning methods, laser cleaning does not produce exhaust gas or noise, which greatly reduces the harm to the human body and improves the workshop production environment.
• Good stability: The pulse laser used in the laser cleaning machine has a long service life, usually up to 10,000 hours, with stable quality and good reliability.
• Easy maintenance: The laser cleaning machine consumes no consumables during use, and the operating cost is low. In the later period, the protective lens only needs to be cleaned or replaced regularly. The maintenance cost is low and it is nearly maintenance-free.

Lasermachfocuses on the development and application of laser cleaning technology, processes and equipment. We have currently small and medium power series and medium and high power series of intelligent equipment that can meet different cleaning needs and can be applied in various harsh and complex industrial environments. Laser cleaning solutions can effectively solve the cleaning problems in the rail transit industry.

Under the dual guidance of policies and market demands, laser cleaning is becoming an important cleaning method for rail transit manufacturing and maintenance, helping to improve the quality and efficiency of rail transit. Baoyu Laser will also expand to higher and more sophisticated fields based on existing laser cleaning technology, continue to improve, upgrade and optimize laser cleaning equipment, and contribute more to the rail transit field.

Cleaning Before Flaw Detection Is the Top Priority

In the wheel set maintenance operation, the most important link is the flaw detection of the axle and wheel to determine whether there are cracks inside the axle and wheel.

However, during the operation of the wheel set, except for the tread and rim that are in contact with the rails, the rest of the wheel set is exposed to the air, which will produce varying degrees of rust. In addition, there is paint and coating on the wheel axle and spokes, resulting in failure. Accurately judge the internal quality of axles and wheels, which affects the accuracy of flaw detection.

Therefore, it is necessary to remove paint and rust from the wheelset before flaw detection to ensure accurate flaw detection results.

Traditional Cleaning Methods Have Obvious Disadvantages

In the past, methods such as mechanical grinding and chemical solvent cleaning were mostly used to remove paint and rust from wheelsets.

Mechanical grinding refers to using a high-speed rotating wire brush or grinding disc to directly remove surface coating and rust. This method has many disadvantages.

• 1. Damage to the base material: It will cause physical damage to the surface of the wheel set and affect the next step of flaw detection.
• 2. Higher cost: The wire brush head wears out a lot. After the wear reaches a certain level, the brush head must be replaced with a new one. The replacement frequency is high, and the equipment usage cost is high.
• 3. Unsafe: The friction between the wire brush head and the surface of the workpiece will cause a large amount of steel wire to fall off, and a large number of small dropped wires to float into other components, causing equipment failure, and in severe cases, endangering the personal safety of workers.
• 4. Cause pollution: The friction between the steel brush and the workpiece produces a lot of noise. At the same time, a large amount of falling steel wire cutting and flushed sewage cause waste pollution.
• 5. Incomplete cleaning: Due to the limitations of the physical structure, this brushing method has dead spots in cleaning, and parts of the workpiece cannot be cleaned. It requires manual polishing by personnel, which is labor-intensive and unstable in quality.

Chemical solvent cleaning also has many disadvantages:

• 1. It requires a large amount of chemical solvents and the cost is high.
• 2. The smell is relatively large, which may pose a threat to the health of staff.
• 3. The wastewater after cleaning needs special treatment, as a little carelessness will cause corrosion on the surface of the wheel set.

From this point of view, although mechanical grinding and chemical solvent cleaning can achieve the purpose of wheel set cleaning, they generally have shortcomings such as low efficiency, high cost, incomplete cleaning, high labor intensity, damage to the substrate, and environmental pollution.  Therefore, there is an urgent need for a better cleaning method to replace it to solve the problem of train wheel set cleaning.

Laser Cleaning Technology Has Significant Advantages

Laser cleaning is such a new cleaning method.  Laser cleaning uses laser light to irradiate the surface of the object to be cleaned. Different surface materials absorb and reflect energy of different wavelengths, forming an interaction force, thereby peeling off the object to be cleaned from the surface of the substrate.

Compared with traditional cleaning methods, laser cleaning has the advantages of good cleaning effect, high cleaning efficiency, non-contact, no damage to the substrate, green environmental protection, cost reduction and efficiency improvement. These advantages are not available in traditional cleaning methods. It is in orbit. The transportation industry has very promising application prospects.