Opportunity/Problem:

Repair welds in critical areas of side frames and bolsters must undergo full furnace re-heat treatment.  Welds in non-critical areas can form undesirable microstructures because of high cooling rates.

Truck castings can fail in a brittle manner at low temperatures.  Components which maintain ductility at low service temperatures could prevent such failures.

Description:

The Improved Truck Castings project focuses on improving the safety of train operations by reducing the number of in-service failures due to poor microstructure. 

Objective(s):

• Identify or develop steels that do not form undesirable microstructures after welding
• Identify or develop steels that retain adequate toughness to prevent brittle failure at
  low temperatures
• Candidate alloys will undergo testing in next phase of project

Rail Impact:

• Reduce failure rates of truck castings due to poor microstructure after repair welding
• Reduce failure rates of truck castings due to brittle failure in low temperature service