https://www.machinetailor.com/metal-parts-fabrication/steel-wheel-blank-without-welds.html

The first step is to define exactly what "without welds" means.
A truly one-piece, seamless design should have no fusion welds, no welded assembly joints, and no filler material anywhere from the original blank through the rim and wheel disc. The finished product should be supplied as a single-piece component traceable to one heat number. However, some products on the market only offer a "seamless rim." In these cases, the rim itself may be formed from steel tubing or a round steel blank without welding, while the wheel disc still has to be welded to the rim during assembly. In other words, the weld has simply been moved from the rim to the rim-to-disc joint, so the actual performance improvement may be far less significant than it sounds. The technical specification should therefore clearly define the manufacturing route, and the supplier should be required to state the forming method on the drawings. Also note that a fully forged solid wheel blank belongs to a different product category. It is a solid forged disc with a pre-machined or reserved center bore, typically used for saw wheels, drive wheels, clamping rollers, and similar components. It should not be confused with a wheel blank.
 

The second step is to provide complete operating conditions; otherwise, supplier quotations are not directly comparable.
Suppliers typically calculate their prices based on material, dimensions, machining requirements, order quantity, and surface treatment. At a minimum, you should provide the overall geometry, load per wheel and axle load, operating speed, whether the wheel is a driven wheel, start-stop frequency, the applicable rail or tire profile standard, and the service temperature range. Required safety factors can vary significantly between industries. General industrial equipment and lifting equipment, for example, are designed to very different load conditions. For low-temperature applications, low-temperature impact toughness should also be specified separately. As a practical rule, where the track and equipment design allow it, a larger wheel diameter is generally preferable because it can help reduce wheel-rail contact stress.
 

The third step is material verification, and two independent pieces of evidence should always be required.
One of the most common low-price traps in this product category is incorrect material identification-for example, ordinary carbon steel being supplied as alloy steel, or a lower-grade steel designation being presented as a higher-grade one. This can lead to a significant loss in strength, wear resistance, and impact performance. Do not rely on a material certificate alone. Ask for both the steel mill's original material test certificate and the incoming spectrometer verification record. The two documents should be traceable to the same heat or batch number before the material can be considered properly verified. The chemical analysis should cover the five major elements and, where necessary, include alloying or microalloying elements such as chromium, nickel, molybdenum, and vanadium. Carbon equivalent should remain within the limits specified in the technical agreement, while sulfur and phosphorus should be controlled strictly. Material grades and applicable standards also vary by application. Heavy-duty railway freight wheels, crane and port/mining wheels, and wheels for export rail projects may follow different grade systems and standards. Select the appropriate material grade and standard based on the actual operating conditions rather than simply copying another supplier's specification.