What is rail and its type?

What is rail and its type?

A rail is a high-carbon steel beam forming part of a railway track, providing a smooth, level, and guiding surface for trains, carrying heavy loads, and allowing for low-friction movement; main types historically and currently used are Double-Headed, Bull-Headed, and the prevalent Flat-Footed (Vignoles) rail, distinguished by their cross-section and fastening methods, with modern rails also classified by weight (e.g., 50kg/m) for different speed/load requirements.

Types of Rails (By Design)

• Double-Headed Rail: Early design with identical top and bottom tables (heads) for flipping when worn, supported by chairs.

• Bull-Headed Rail: Similar to double-headed but with more metal in the head for wear, also needing chairs for support.

• Flat-Footed (Vignoles) Rail: Inverted T-shaped with a flat base, providing direct stability and eliminating the need for chairs, making it economical and common today.

How are steel rails manufactured?

The process of steel rail manufacturing is simple. The most important is rolling the steel. After choosing the suitable steel billet, then the next step is rolling the steel.

Disposing the billet steel

Adopt the continuous casting bloom to improve the macrostructure of the billet steel. Besides, adopt the vacuum degassing and secondary refining technology to ensure the inner quality of the billet steel.

Rolling

As we know, the steel billet through rolling, cooling, and straightening can be made to the rails. During the process, the vital part is rolling. There are two methods to rolling: groove rolling and universal rolling.

Heating

Heating is better for improving the mechanical property drastically. The most popular heating technology is Quenching and tempering heat treatment and slow quenching. Meanwhile, adopt the walking beam furnace to heat the billet steel that can control the gas fractionation and prevent the decarburization and uneven temperature

Straightening

We would like to adopt the long rod to rolling, cooling and straightening. This technology is better for increasing the yield, reducing the residue stress and lengthening the service life of the steel rail.

Inspecting

Through the online quality inspect center, adopt the ultrasound wave, eddy, and laser to inspect the steel inner quality, the rail surface quality and the railroad track dimension.

Cutting

It is common that adopt the carbide machine to drill and process the rail head so that can get the high accuracy.

Since 2008, GNEE RAIL has been supplying steel rails of different grades for more than 18 years, steel rails from GNEE is highly recommened in China and abroad.Wtih cutting edge equipment, GNEE produces high quality steel rails that meet with requirements of most countries. Standard rail, head hardened rail, heavy rail,light rail,crane rail and other types are all available here, as one of the China main rail supplier, GNEE RAIL has been working on supplying economical green railway products all over the world.