FAILURE ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY BRAKE BLOCKS

Citation
Ja. Ajayi et Oa. Adeleke, FAILURE ANALYSIS OF RAILWAY BRAKE BLOCKS, Engineering failure analysis, 4(3), 1997, pp. 205-213
Citations number
5
Categorie Soggetti
Engineering, Mechanical","Materials Science, Characterization & Testing
ISSN journal
13506307
Volume
4
Issue
3
Year of publication
1997
Pages
205 - 213
Database
ISI
SICI code
1350-6307(1997)4:3<205:FAORBB>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
Past efforts of the Nigerian Railway Corporation to produce shoe brake blocks locally have proved unsuccessful; the brake blocks produced ar e defective, and are highly susceptible to brittle (catastrophic) fail ure. The objective of this work was to undertake failure analysis of l ocally produced shoe blocks, and to design a metallurgical process to produce efficient ones. To this end, mechanical and microstructural an alyses of samples of the standard. failed and cast shoe blocks were ca rried out. The result of the investigations reveals that the standard brake block is nodular (graphitic) cast-iron, the failed block is cast -iron with combined carbon (cementite), and the cast block is cast-iro n with graphite flakes. The cast block can be upgraded to the standard through appropriate inoculation of the melt if permanent mould castin g facilities have to be employed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.