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July 2021
Compiled by Michael Popke
Shells, spalls and corrugation (SSC) grinding is a priority for railroads, especially in areas with tight clearances such as switches, crossings and default detectors, Geismar North America officials said. The company offers several options to perform SSC grinding, including the MV-3 — a machine company officials note has gained traction among Class Is.
Mounted on a four-wheel frame for stability, the MV-3 is equipped with a 6-by-3-inch surface stone that can be held at a fixed angle of plus or minus 30 degrees to ensure a factory-planed surface while in track. Its ergonomic design allows the operator to stand upright, eliminating fatigue during operation, company officials said.
Geismar North America’s MP-23 grinder is equipped with the same 6-by-3-inch stone but features a ridged frame that runs on the rail with a sturdy outrigger to keep the grinding function on a desired plane. It also can be used to profile rail and is equipped with a mechanical stop to eliminate dipping of welds during grinding. The grinder features a “full 180-degree rotational grinding ability” that, like the MV-3, allows the operator to remain standing while the head of the machine rotates, company officials said.
In 2020, Loram introduced Rail Pro® Infinity, a software upgrade that allows the company to better control the production and precision of its RG400 series production rail grinders.
Rail Pro Infinity is designed to generate custom machine pattern configurations in real time to grind any rail profile to a desired template while only removing the precise amount of metal required. RG400 Rail Grinders now can grind quicker and more efficiently, as the new software — available on any RG400 series production rail grinder — allows for infinite control of grinding pattern combinations to maximize rail life, company officials said. The upgrade also helps railroads save money through reduced metal removal costs, increased machine productivity and improved wheel-rail interface, they added.
This year, Loram’s RGS Specialty Grinders (RGS) now feature Rail Pro® Flex, which allows the machines to operate like RG400 production grinders. Loram Rail Inspection Vehicles (RIV) can inspect specialty assets to create grind plans for the RGS prior to conducting the work. Creating a grind plan with an RIV improves operational safety by eliminating the need to have personnel on the ground to take measurements, company officials said. RGS rail grinders with Rail Pro Flex also mean operators no longer need to assess asset condition to determine the type of work needed.
The Orgo-Thermit Goldschmidt Rail Grinding Division offers grinding vehicles designed to maximize available track time. The vehicles can enter and exit a crossing within 60 seconds, which “guarantees a high level of efficiency and allows the grinding vehicle to be stationed closer to the job site for maximum spark time when track occupancy permits,” company officials said.
The latest addition is a monitoring system used to verify work and identify areas requiring additional attention. It incorporates Eddy Current equipment to inspect the running surface and the gauge corner of the rail for instances of rolling contact fatigue. The Eddy Current equipment can measure surface defects up to depths of 2.7 millimeters.
“Our technology encompasses both a manually operated trolley with eight probes strategically located to identify underlying conditions of defect-prone areas, and an onboard solution designed for continuous recording during revenue-service hours,” company officials said.
With urban transit systems, clearance profiles can be quite small, so “spark-free solutions are required,” Plasser American officials said. Also, curve radii can be extremely tight and maintenance windows are typically short. As a result, Plasser & Theurer developed a new grinding machine as part of a project partially funded by the European Union Shift2Rail Initiative.
Called ATMO (Automatic Track Machine Oscillator), the machine is a grinding trolley that combines two processes — sliding grinding and oscillating grinding — for preventive rail surface treatment in urban environments. A new grinding carriage is designed to precisely follow a rail surface independent of the curve radius to achieve best grinding results. A new drive concept provides variable and controllable oscillation frequencies and amplitudes for optimized grinding results, company officials said. The technology also can be used to treat switches and crossings.
Although an integrated diesel engine powers the current prototype trolley version, the final ATMO version will be “purely electric driven,” with batteries or potentially hydrogen, company officials said. The ATMO will have “a significant impact on noise related to wheel-rail related emissions” due to low rail-surface roughness, they added.
Via its Maintenance of Way Division, RailWorks Corp. provides a range of grinding, undercutting and geometry services for Class I, transit and industrial customers in the United States and Canada.
RailWorks offers turnkey switch and crossing rail grinding services for all parts of the rail, including tangent curves, frogs, crossings and switch points. Demand for grinding services throughout North America was strong last year and continues to be this year as “customers look to extend the life of their rail networks and improve operations,” company officials said.
Vossloh launched its milling operations in North America with the VTM-compact milling machine, which can be used on Class I, light- and high-speed rail networks.
“This unit has allowed us to see the benefits of avoiding rail replacement by tackling issues such as plastic flow, head checking, gauge corner cracking, squats, tongue lipping, false flange damage and wheel burns,” company officials said.
Despite its low 16-ton weight, the VTM-compact achieves a metal-removal rate of up to two millimeters per pass, they said. Additionally, it “can be deployed anywhere” using its own high rail tractor-trailer, which lowers mobilization costs over rail-bound equipment, company officials note.
Vossloh’s proprietary high-speed grinding also can reach working speeds of more than 40 mph, allowing work to occur without requiring track outages or work windows.
Michael Popke is a Madison, Wisconsin-based freelance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com
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