Voestalpine’s Dutch subsidiary, Voestalpine Railpro, has extended its stationary milling machine with a new milling wheel which allows the production of preventively milled rails for the light rail sector.
Under this project, Voestalpine Railpro can now also mill 49E1 rail profiles symmetrically. Preventively milled rails considerably reduce the time span during which the railway cannot be used and yield a remarkable improvement of rail quality. And what’s more, owing to this adjustment, also the light rail market is now able to profit from company’s services.
During preventive milling, the decarbonised surface layer of the rail is symmetrically removed in one operation in conditioned circumstances. This layer has a thickness of at least 0.7 mm. By executing this task prior to the installation of the rail, the downtime is considerably shortened. In addition, it turns out that after the preventively milled rails are installed, there is no need for an additional first and second cyclical grinding operation.
Prior to the rails’ use, it is important to remove their mill scale to prevent premature damage, prolonging the rails’ life span. The rails are milled symmetrically in company’s milling factory which allows trains to use both sides of the rail instead of only one side. As a result, issues such as the direction in which the train moves or the direction into which the rail is delivered are no longer of any concern.
An important aspect is that during the milling process, no heat is infused into the rail surface, thus preventing any hardening or blue-staining.
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