Research on forming technology and experiment of high strength aluminum alloy locomotive traction gearbox

Abstract

Gearbox is a widely used component in mechanical transmission and plays a vital role in the operation of locomotive. With the development of aluminum alloy materials and molding technology, the monolithic casting gearbox has a widely application prospect. This paper focuses on the manufacturing method of Selective Laser Melting processing for high strength aluminum alloy locomotive traction gearbox. Firstly, the influence factors of laser melting process on the placement angle, support type and support spacing are studied through orthogonal experimental design. It is found that the placement angle has the greatest impact on the forming accuracy, the support spacing takes the second place, and the support type has the least impact on the forming accuracy. When the placement angle is 45°, the support spacing is 1 mm, the steel wire support is added to the support type, which has the least impact on the forming accuracy. Then, the processing ability of the whole box structure is verified by using the Fused Deposition Modeling technology. With using the optimized optimal parameter combination, it can be found that the volume of the printing box is 100 cm3, the mass is 280 g, the surface roughness is 6 μm, and the precision is 0.15 mm. Then the laser melting forming process is carried out in the selected box area. Through experimental analysis, a prototype is developed. At the same time, the process parameters of selective laser melting forming for the whole box structure can be obtained.