Possibilities of modification of ploughshares used for winter maintenance of forest roads

The article presents partial results of research to increase the service life of snow ploughshares, which are used for winter maintenance of forest transport roads. The main working tool of vehicles - snow plough is the arrow ploughshare. It is made as a weldment. The contact tool, when in contact with the road, is the rake blade, which is subject to abrasive wear. The experiment consisted of analysing the current state of materials, designing and exploring such options that would ensure a longer ser-vice life of the blades. Welding material was designed to be applied to the base material of the blade. Furthermore, the HARDOX 450 was designed for the production of the whole ploughshare. The last design was welding HARDOX 450 with an electrode OK 48.00 with the base material steel 11 484. This proposal is presented in more detail in the article. The hardness of HBW, HV and HRC was measured on the samples and microscopic analysis was performed using light and electron microsco-py. The aim was to determine the quality of the connection of materials, mixing in the connection zone and comparison with the condition on the original blade. It is assumed that a suitable choice of welding electrode or a suitable choice of abrasion-resistant steel can achieve an effective increase in the life of the snow plougshare, whether from a technical or economic point of view.