Application prospects for impact machines in the area of strengthening of joint welds

Effect of vibropercussion plastic strengthening on microhardness and depth of strengthening of tread areas of railway welds is experimentally studied. It is found that improvement of hardness of railway welds requires impact treatment of welds with a unit blow energy of 20 J by an indenter with a cylindrical flat end 55 mm in radius. Under the specified energy impact, a surface layer is formed with the microhardness of 5800–6100 MPa and the strengthened thickness of 1.8–2 mm. The implementation of the technology for vibropercussion plastic strengthening of railway welds needs a moble unit with an electromagnetic drive to be designed. (paper)