RAIL SPRINGKHARKHANA PROCESS FLOW CHART RAW MATERIAL TEMPRING BLACK BAR END GRINDING BAR STRAIGHTENING CHAMFERING

END CU TTING SHOT PEENING PEELING MAGNA FLUX TESTING EDDY CURRENT TESTINGPRIMER PAINTIN G MAGNA FLUX TESTING SCRAGGING HOT SCRAGGING END TAPERING LOAD TESTING BAR HEATI NG FURNACE BLACK PAINTING REPITCHING COILING COLOR CODING OIL QUENCHING DESPATCH Peeled bar The smooth-turned, pressure-polished, mill-length steel bar commonly known as peel ed bar as an alternative to cold-drawn steel bar

The Bar Peeling Process Like cold-drawn steel bar, peeled bar starts as hot roll ed bar from a steel mill. The first operation performed on the hot rolled bar is straightening, up to 1/16 inch per 5 linear feet, in preparation for processing . As it comes from the mill, hot rolled bar contains surface impurities and irre gularities that BPC removes, or peels from the bar, in a machining operation. Ba rs are moved a bundle at a time via overhead crane from the straightener to a sp ecial turning machine called a bar peeler. At the peeler, the bars automatically feed one at a time through a rotating cutting head, which consists of four inde xable carbide inserts spaced 90 degrees apart. The operator can adjust the speed of the cutting head from the machine s control panel anywhere between 800 and 1,3 00 rpm. Bars are fed one at a time through the peeler at rates of 10 to 100 fpm, depending on such factors as size (diameter) and hardness. Getting Under The Skin Peeling reduces the bar diameter by 4 to 10 percent (5 pe rcent is the average). That ensures that 99.99 percent of objectionable surface conditions, such as seams and decarb, are removed, leaving a more consistent, mo re machinable bar. Some of the bar s straightness is lost in the peeling process, so after the bar is peeled, it goes to a burnishing operation for restraightenin g. There, the bar is passed between a pair of pressure polishing rolls that redu ces the diameter of the bar from a few tenths to a few thousandths to achieve fi nal size. As it emerges from the burnishing machine, the finished bar is within 0.003 inch of nominal diameter, with a 1/16 inch or better straightness per 5 fe et and a 20 to 40 Ra surface finish. From the burnishing operation, the bar is m oved by crane to one of several nondestructive testing stations for inspection. Here, each bar undergoes eddy current testing for surface flaws such as seams, p its, cracks and tool marks. The stations can also ultrasonically test for interi or flaws such as inclusions and interior cracks; however, testing of the bar int erior is frequently omitted at the Newton Falls facility because the bar undergo es such tests at the mill.

End tapering End tapering is done by end tapering machine which is a combination of furnace and forging machine. Firstly ends of peeled bar are heated up to 950 plus minus 10 degree Celsius in furnace and the length of heated end should be twice of the average length of the spring . The time for heating or soaking is a ccording to bar diameter and it is 50 second per mm bar diameter. End tapering ( include stamping) should be finished before bar temperature fall below 850degree Celsius. And this end tapering is done by forging. for forging different bar di ameter different dies are used which is made of high speed steel (HSS). After en d tapering thickness of end should be one third of bar diameter and length of ta per portion should be 2/3 of the circumference of spring.

Tolerance limit for different bar diameter are following BAR DIA MM TOLERANCE 25 TO 33 +/- 1 mm 36 TO 45 +/- 1.5mm 45 to 54 +/- 1.8mm End tapering is done for e longate the bar to save material and reduce grinding work & energy

Bar heating furnace After the end tapering process the end tapered bars aremoved via overhead crane to the bar heating furnace where it is heated up to the temp erature of 910 +/- 10 degree Celsius .and the time for soaking or heating is acc ording to bar dia and it is 50 sec per mm bar diameter .if soaking time is great er than suggested then scaling & decarb level will rise which is not acceptable. Important note Bar should loaded in furnace after the furnace has reached to pa rticular temperature. Coiling Immediately after the bar comes out from the furnace it get coiled by co iling machine basically this a hot working process. Quenching Immediately after coiling spring get poured in to the oil bath for que nching .at the time of quenching the temperature of spring should be 850 +/- 20 degree Celsius otherwise spring will not get required or proper hardness. And th e temperature of oil bath is 40 to 80 degree Celsius Effect of quenching Before the material is hardened, the microstructure of the m aterial is a pearlite grain structure that is uniform and laminar. Pearlite is a mixture of ferrite and cementite formed when steel or cast iron are manufacture d and cooled at a slow rate. After quench hardening, the microstructure of the m aterial form into martensite as a fine, needle-like grain structure In metallurg y, it is most commonly used to harden steel by introducing martensite, in which case the steel must be rapidly cooled through its eutectoid point, the temperatu re at which austenitebecomes unstable.

Tempering Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming brittle mart ensite or bainite into a combination of ferrite and cementite or sometimes Tempe red martensite. After quenchingspring is moved to tempering furnace and the temp erature of tempering furnace is from 440 to 500 degree Celsius (according to que nch hardness)and the tempering time should be 90 min

Hardness testing After tempering 10% of spring carried for hardness testing. For CV steel it should be ranging from 415 to 460 BHN and for silicon steel it shou ld be range from 380 to 440 BHN.Recovered spring should be tested 100%. End grinding End grinding is done by end grinding machine .it uses grinding whee l made up of SiO2,Cr2O3,CaO,MgO,Al2O3,Fe2O3.. the coolant used in end grinding i s emulsion of oil in water(water + grinding water additive(servo coat mineral oi l)).RPM used in end grinding is 325 IN end grinding machine four spring of dia up to 300mm can be grind simultaneous ly .and two spring above 300mm dia can be grind simultaneously. Grinding surface should be free from any hot spot or burning spot& hair line crack The main purp ose of end grinding is to make base of spring flat so that it can easily aligned with the flat base

CHAMFERING Chamfering also a grinding process in which the corner of grind sprin g which are out of level bring in level. Shot peening Immediate after the chamfering spring carried to shot peening chamb er. Where shot peening is done. Shot peening is a cold working process used to p roduce a compressiveresidual stress layer and modify mechanical properties of me tals like it increase fatigue stenth of spring . It entails impacting a surface with shot (round metallic, glass, or ceramic particles) with force sufficient to create plastic deformation.[1] It is similar to sandblasting, except that it op erates by the mechanism of plasticity rather than abrasion: each particle functi ons as a ball-peen hammer. In practice, this means that less material is removed by the process, and less dust created. Magna flux testing After shot peening spring is carried out in crack testing mac hine where spring is tested against any crack (horizontal& vertical) by magna fl ux testing . Magna fluxing, developed originally by Alfred Victor (A.V.) de Fore st and Foster Baird (Bic) Doane, and developed further with the assistance of Ca rl E. Betz, is a method of testing ferrousmetals for surface and subsurface flaw s.[1] The component being tested must be made of a ferromagnetic material such a s iron, nickel, or cobalt, or some of their alloys. This test is often used on i ndustrial tools, and engine parts during maintenance inspections. It can also be used to diagnose failure, as in crash investigations. It works by applying a ma gnetic field to the component under test using a permanent magnet. This will cau se a high concentration of magnetic flux at surface cracks, which can be made vi sible by dusting iron powder or a similar magnetic material over the component. Parts can be tested using one of two methods. The wet method consist of bathing the parts in a solution containing iron oxide particles known as magnetic ink. T he wetted part is then placed in a magnetic field and inspected using a black li ght (ultraviolet light). The iron oxide particles are attracted to surface disco ntinuities or cracks, where the magnetic field is discontinuous. The particles f lux around the imperfections and the patterns are visible under the black light Scragging After magna flux testing (crack testing) springs are carried out to sc ragging machine for scragging process. In scragging process spring is subjected to a load greater than that which will be experienced in service. This ensures t hat the spring steel has yielded and adopted permanent curvature. Load testing After scragging process spring transported to load testing machinew here spring are divided in different color code and also spring for rework and r epitching also determine by this testing Example for C91 type of spring Ln- norm al length (after load) L0-Orignal length (before load) If Lo is greater than 457 +/-7mm then it is go for rescragging( after raise to a particular temperature in furnace) If Lo is less than 457+/-7mm then it is go for repitching. If spring t akes a load of 37.80-38.95KN then its color code would be white If spring takes a load of 38.95-40.11 KN then its color code would be red If any spring takes mo re than standard load then it also go for scragging . Primer paintingAfter load testing springs goes in to the primer painting plant w here a layer of red oxide is coated on the spring and the thickness of the layer is about 43 micron. The main of this painting is to protect spring from corrosi on. Black painting After primer painting spring carried out in black painting pl ant where a layer of about 45 micron is coated on the spring. Dispatch After all operation spring is dispatched and packed in to the card box boxes.