Rails are steel products that must fulfil a multitude of technological requirements. High-speed railways, with speeds over 350 km/h, are one of the most demanding applications, a market segment only accessible to those companies equipped with the most advanced resources.
The following six features summarise the objectives that high speed rails must meet:
- Safety
- Comfort
- Durability and cost efficiency
- Minimum acoustic impact
- Service
- Environmentally-friendly
In ArcelorMittal each of these aspects is given careful consideration, from the design stage of the manufacturing and control processes. In order to achieve these objectives, the production process of high speed rails is designed to satisfy the following requirements:
- Fracture mechanics
- Chemical, mechanical and structural homogeneity
- Dimensional uniformity
- Absence of surface and internal defects
- Wear, impact and fatigue resistance
- Low residual stresses
- Weldability
ArcelorMittal has developed state-of-the-art systems for steel production, which allows the supply of top quality raw material, and a production process that detects any possible anomaly, whether internal or external, together with the equipment required for rails to comply the strictest dimensional tolerances.
ArcelorMittal has been producing high speed rails since 1990, with more than 1.500.000 tonnes, supplied, of this product. At present, it can supply individual bars up to 120 metres long with maximum reliability, geometrical precision, strict flatness and the highest quality on the market.
