How are Rail Clips manufactured?
Rail clip, or called elastic rail clip, is used to fasten steel rails to the underlying tie plate. Through bending and distortion, rail clip can put pressure on the rail, which prevents longitudinal movement of the rail, either from changes in temperature or through vibration. In general, rail clips are made of forged spring steel produced by hot forging process. Because of the most uniform microstructure, the forged rail clips are considered to be better than other metal forming process.
| Model | Diameter | Weight |
| Type III | Ø18 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E1609 | Ø16 | 0.43 kg/pc |
| E1809 | Ø20 | 0.61kg/pc |
| E1813 | Ø18 | 0.62kg/pc |
| E2001 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2007 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2009 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2039 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2055 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2056 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| E2063 | Ø20 | 0.80kg/pc |
| PR85 Rail Clip | Ø13 | 0.25kg/pc |
| PR309A | Ø19 | 0.85kg/pc |
| PR401 | Ø20 | 0.97kg/pc |
| PR415 | Ø20 | 0.95kg/pc |
| PR601A | Ø20 | 1.03kg/pc |
| SKL 1 | Ø13 | 0.48kg/pc |
| SKL 3 | Ø13 | 0.48kg/pc |
| SKL 12 | Ø13 | 0.53kg/pc |
| SKL 14 | Ø13 | 0.53kg/pc |
| Special Rail Clip | Ø13 | 0.48kg/pc |
| Russia Rail Clip | Ø18 | 0.58kg/pc |
| Deenik Clip | Ø25 | 0.49-0.68kg/pc |
| Single Anti- | Ø20 | 0.25kg/pc |
| Theft |
As an OEM & OBM manufacturer, GNEE RAIL is capable of not only producing a wide range of internationally common types of rail clips, such as W Tension Clamp, e-Clip, Fast-Clip, SKL Tension Clamp, Nabla Blade, etc., but also customizing products tailored to our customers' specific requirements.
Elastic rail clips manufacturing process
Based on the process production, elastic rail clip manufacture process can be summarized as eight links: raw material- shearing- heating- forming- hardening- tempering- inspection- packing.
1. Raw material
In general, elastic rail clip is made of spring steel bar. Spring steel refers to the steel specifically for manufacturing spring and elastic components due to the elasticity in the quenched and tempered state. Spring steel has excellent comprehensive performance like mechanical properties, performance by the bullet-proof, fatigue, hardenability, physical and chemical properties. The raw materials of elastic railroad clip mostly include 55 Si7, 60 Si7, 65 Si7, 55 Si Cr7, 60Si2MnA, 60Si2CrA, 55Si2Mn, and 38Si7 grade of spring steel.
2.Shearing
The processing method of elastic rail clip mainly adopts hot forging process. The raw material which is spring steel has to be sheared as per length required.
3. Heating
After shearing, spring steel should be heated to forging temperature (950-1000 degrees Celsius). One thing to notice about this link is that excessive heating should be avoided to check decarburization.
4. Forming
When the spring steel bar is heated to proper temperature, it will be transferred to power press for forging. Three sets of molds and fixtures are kept as drawings before hammering.
5. Hardening
The forged rail clips are passed through a quenching oil tank in a conveyor belt for a period of 12 minutes at a temperature of 70℃. The maximum time required for the rod to be removed from the heating furnace to be immersed in the quenching oil time (including forming) is 20 seconds. Cleaning quenching oil bath, and then, checking the Dimensional accuracy and quench hardness of rail clips.
6. Tempering
After quenching, the elastic rail clips are tempered at 400-500℃ for a period of 55-60 minutes, which can achieve appropriate toughness in the spring.
7. Inspection
Every rail clip is put through strict quality controls before delivery, such as fatigue test, hardness test and load test, etc. All inspections will go through according to requirements from different customers.
8. Packing
Surface treatment is a necessary link before packaging if customer has requirement. There is a range of surface treatments to meet the needs of varying applications, such as plain (oiled), Oxide black, color painting or other methods according to customer requirements. For package, a lot of packing methods are suitable for elastic rail clips, woven bags is one of the common packing method.
What is the function of a rail clip?
- Properly transfer the lateral force from the rail into the steel plate and structure
- Secure the rail in the lateral direction to minimize pad creep
- Apply vertical force on the rail to compress the seals on the pad
GNEE RAIL offers a diverse range of products and services, including OEM and OBM rail fastening systems for conventional, high-speed, heavy-haul, and metro applications. Its portfolio includes rail clips, pads, tie plates, bolts, and other specialized components. Comprehensive laboratory facilities ensure all products meet rigorous standards, including EN 13146, EN 13481 internationally, and TB standards domestically in China.
