RailCor®

ArcelorMittal Corrosion Resistant Rails

At ArcelorMittal, we understand the nature of rails and the challenges faced in all types of environments. Whether rails are installed inside tunnels, city centers, coastal areas, or even to protect them during shipment, RailCor® is there to preserve rails against corrosion.

RailCor® family, best cost-effective rails in the market to face rail corrosion.

RailCor®, developed by ArcelorMittal Global R&D, has been tested through a wide range of systems in accelerated corrosion tests. The selected solutions have been tested on real tracks for more than 2 years, under the most severe conditions.

ArcelorMittal has listened to our customers which shared real life experiences during product design, optimum surface preparation, world-class coatings, acting together as the best physical barrier to protect the rail.

RailCor® is available in four specific solutions to fulfil the most demanding customer requirements to protect rails against corrosion, depending on the location and final application:

RailCor® Premium:

Designed for the most demanding and severe corrosion challenges, RailCor® Premium meets corrosivity performance C5 according ISO 12944.

Based on a duplex coating system:containing a sacrificial metallic layer for galvanic protection in combination with an additional organic topcoat acting as physical barrier.

RailCor® Premium provides an additional corrosion protection thanks to the synergic combination of the duplex system.

RailCor® Stray Current:

Stray currents may cause severe material damage by corrosion, on buried or immersed metal structures, particularly, long buried horizontal structures, e.g. pipelines and metal sheathed cables, may be affected by this type of corrosion.

Protective measures at an early stage: Since corrosion damage can appear after only a short time of exposure to stray current it is important to make provisions for protective measures at an early stage. This includes meeting corrosivity performance C4 according to ISO 12944.

Insulating nature: RailCor® Stray Current is based on a special organic coating selected for its insulating nature, achieving a physical barrier that helps to prevent corrosion and current leakage. Rail is coated with a layer having optimal thickness for electrical insulation, which has been designed following the operating principle of EN 50122-2:2011.

RailCor® Plus:

Designed to meet demanding corrosion challenges, RailCor® Plus is adapted to customer needs. This includes meeting corrosivity performance C4 or C5 in accordance with ISO 12944.

In addition, RailCor® Plus can be adaptable to mitigate thermal buckling when rail is subjected to high temperature conditions.

RailCor® Prime:

Specially recommended for general transport including marine.

Coating has been designed to be thick enough to withstand properly long shipments periods.This includes meeting corrosivity performance C2/C3 according ISO 12944

Normally the whole rail profile will be coated to protect the entire perimeter during shipment.

Coating is applied on web and foot surface. Upon request, coated surface can be customized depending on the rail profile and specific customer needs.

RailCor® product family provide customers with the following main benefits

In addition to protecting rails against corrosion:

  • Rail service life dramatically increased.
  • Considerable reduction in rail track maintenance operations.
  • Increased cost savings reducing Life Cycle Cost by expanding shelf life of the rail
  • Remarkable decrease on the rail replacement expenses.
  • Product designed to facilitate handling including welding or drilling by leaving rail ends uncoated.

RailCor® welding:

  • Can be welded both by aluminothermic or flash butt welding.
  • Rail ends are normally delivered uncoated to fulfil welding requirements.
  • The recommended uncoated distance is between 100 – 200 mm depending on the welding methodology.

RailCor® meets the most demanding coating standards:

ArcelorMittal has developed RailCor® in accordance with the most demanding ISO coating standards. It has been designed and tested to include optimal steel adhesion acting as the best physical barrier to protect the rail:

  • ISO 12944-5:2018 (Protective paint systems for steel structures).
  • ISO 4624:2016 (Paints and varnishes – pull-off test for adhesion).
  • ISO 2063-1:2017 (Specifies requirements for the protection of iron and steel surfaces against corrosion by applying thermal-sprayed metallic coatings of zinc, aluminum or their alloys)

For more information, please contact: rails.specialsections@arcelormittal.com