Leadership
Rails are a steel product of a high complexity, both as regards its technical design and manufacturing process, and the ever greater demands made on them in their service conditions. Rails must be capable of responding satisfactorily to the increase in the loads hauled, increases in speed, a higher train frequency, a higher level of comfort (on passenger lines) and, above all, to railroad safety requirements.
Today, only a very small group of rail manufacturers combine long experience with a dynamic of continuous improvement to their facilities and processes. The factor that differentiates this select group of manufacturers from their competitors is their high technological level, which allows them to supply a rail of excellent quality, capable of meeting the present and future needs of the most demanding users.
The experience, technology and guaranteed quality of the rails manufactured by ArcelorMittal allow us to offer:
- A variety of sizes from 40 kg/m to 80 kg/m.
- A wide range of steel grades to international standards or to the customers’ own technical specifications, both for the construction of newtracks and for revamping existing ones.
- Possibility to manufacture any new type of rail (4,000 tonnes minimum)
- Rails with very strict dimensional tolerances for high speed tracks.
- One-piece rails up to 120 metres long.
- Long welded rails (up to 288 metres).
- Asymmetric rails.
Public and urban transport lines
This market is expanding rapidly throughout the world, due to urban growth and the saturation that it originates, in order to provide transport services for the population living in the outskirts and peripheral towns.
Urban systems have a high service frequency and face a difficult topography, with sharp curves and steep gradients, as well as short braking and acceleration distances. ArcelorMittal supplies rails for underground systems and intercity railways in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville, Paris, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Brasilia, Caracas, Medellin, etc.
Heavy haul lines
These lines carry great quantities of ores, containers and other products. The traffic is usually characterized by trains with a high number of wagons and high load per axle.
Rails with high wear resistance and high fatigue failure resistance are required for these tracks
Head Hardened Rails
ArcelorMittal) have integrated in the rolling mill a head hardening system (HH), based on controlled cooling by water jets. More than one million tonnes of top-quality head hardened rails have already been produced using this advanced technology.
This system uses controlled water jets to dissipate the heat in the steel in successive stages in order to obtain a fully pearlitic structure, perfectly suited to the metallurgical properties of these type of rails. The entry and exit temperatures determine the optimum range to ensure a fully pearlitic structure over the entire length of the rail.
Moreover, the latent heat generated during rolling allows reducing the energy consumed in the process. As it is integrated in the production line, the rail head-hardening system involves minimum handling requirements. It also brings about greater flexibility for future modifications to the production process, such as the production of longer rails.
To sum up, this head-hardening process based on water-jet cooling and designed to optimise the properties of the rails, has resulted in an overall improvement in product performance, allowing the company to respond to the present and future challenges of the railway industry. The ability to efficiently obtain a deep hardened layer in each rail produced is a crucial factor when considering possible future increases in axle loads and in the tonnes transported on railway infrastructures, as it allows hardness values of over 380 on the Brinell scale to be achieved. Whether the rails are used for passenger or goods transport, safety is at all times ArcelorMittal’s top priority, in addition to the manufacture of products of the highest quality with the longest possible service life.
High speed lines
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 summarize 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
Mixed-traffic systems
The operation of these systems involves a great variety of traffic conditions, different topographies and climates, frequently, in oneway routes and in a wide variety of densities.
Switches and crossovers
ArcelorMittal has joined the group of worldclass manufacturers of rails for switches through the production of switch bars of up to 108 m. (or 120 m.) from special asymmetric rails.
Product Contact
Stephane Bernard | Marek Bednarek | Pawel Panasiuk | Simon Cottam | Oktay Atcali | Adrian Castro
David Moris || Product Manager – Transport Rail
ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products – Rails & Special Sections
Apartado 570 (P.O. Box 570). Edificio de Energías, 2ª P.
E-33691 Gijón Spain
rails.specialsections@arcelormittal.com
