“Railway Research Institute” JSC, Moscow, Russia:

A. D. Konyukhov, Chief Researcher

A. K. Shurtakov, Leading Engineer

“Alcoa SMZ” JSC, Moscow, Russia:

A. M. Drits, Executive Officer on Development of Business and New Technologies (“Alcoa Russia”), Head of Moscow Office, e-mail: Alexander.Drits@alkoa.com

There were defined the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance in fertilizers of welds, made of 1565ch M (1565ч М) aluminum alloy sheets of Al – Mg-system. There was established that the yield strength and ultimate resistance of 1565ch M alloy is higher than the yield strength and ultimate resistance of the commonly used AMg6 alloy at the equal elongation. The properties of 1565ch M alloy under static, shock and cyclic loading conditions were determined for the welds, produced in three ways (argon arc welding, plasma welding, TIG welding). A preferred technology for butt welds making is TIG welding, whereby the toughness of welds is 2–3 times higher than the toughness of welds, produced from the same alloy by fusion welding. Restricted endurance limit of welds was defined on the basis of 107 cycles. The restricted endurance limit is 70 MPa for weld, produced by argon arc welding without weld reinforcement removing. According to this, removing endurance strength was increased to 100 MPa after weld reinforcement. Restricted endurance limit at TIG welding is 128 MPa. It is shown that corrosion resistance of the alloy and its 1565ch welds in fertilizers are about 20 times higher than this characteristic of the 10KhNDP (10ХНДП) steel, used in the freight cars' plates. Body assembly technology, using TIG welding, can compete with freight cars' body assembly, using HUCK components (lockbold technology), adopted in North America. Use of aluminum alloys in the construction of the freight cars' bodies, combined with increased axial loading, can increase their capacity by 35–40 tons and reduce costs for corrosion protection of internal surface of car bodies during grain and fertilizers shipment.