Cooling Method For Crane Wheel Forgings

The cooling process of crane wheel forgings mainly includes cooling methods and cooling time. Common cooling media include water, oil, and air. The cooling capacity and characteristics of these media have a significant impact on the cooling process.
Among the three cooling media of water, oil, and air, water has a strong cooling ability, which can be further improved through water circulation and agitation. Water spray has a stronger cooling ability. As the water temperature increases, the cooling capacity during the high temperature stage decreases, while the change during the low temperature stage is relatively small. Therefore, the water temperature of the forgings that require quenching cannot be increased. Impurities in water can greatly alter its cooling capacity, which varies from place to place, with saltwater having a greater cooling capacity than water.
The cooling capacity of oil is smaller than that of water (especially in the low-temperature stage), with a significant difference of 28 times. In most cases, forgings need to be rapidly cooled at high temperatures to ensure quenching, while slowly cooled at low temperatures to reduce structural stress. In production, the water quenching oil cooling method utilizes the strong cooling ability of water at high temperatures and the weak cooling ability of oil at low temperatures to achieve the above objectives. The temperature change has little effect on the cooling capacity of the oil, so it can still be used when the oil temperature rises. Generally, the oil temperature in production is between 20-80 degrees Celsius. When the oil temperature is low, the viscosity is high, which can easily lead to uneven cooling. The oil circulation has little effect on its cooling capacity. The main purpose of circulating oil or moving workpieces up and down during production is to evenly cool the forgings and prevent local oil temperature from rising too high.