What is the hardness of Rail Clips?

Rail clip, also called elastic rail clip, it is used to fasten the rail tracks with railroad spike, rail pad, track bolt, rail joint bar together. It is also usually used as a part of rail fastening system. There are huge demand of rail clips on the railway line, about 7000pcs per kilometer, which is directly related to rail safety.

The hardness of standard elastic rail clips typically ranges from 42 to 47 HRC (Rockwell hardness scale), though some manufacturers specify a slightly wider range, such as 40 to 48 HRC. Some high-performance or specialized clips may have a higher hardness, reaching up to 51-55 HRC.

• Standard range: The most common specification for elastic rail clips is 42-47 HRC.

• Slightly wider range: Some clips, like those from certain manufacturers, fall into the 40-48 HRC range.

• High-performance clips: Specialized clips, such as Nabla clips, are designed for higher clamping performance and may have a hardness of 51-55 HRC.

• Quality indicator: Hardness is a crucial quality test for rail clips, ensuring they meet performance requirements for fatigue and deformation over their service life.

Rail clips processing procedures

• Raw material: Premium grade spring steel sourced from a reliable and certified long term producer.

• Shearing: The spring steel bar has to be sheared as per length required.

• Heating: to forging temperature (950-1000 degrees Celsius), but over heating shall be avoided to check decarburization.

• Forming: Proper heated bar is transferred to power press for forging.

• Hardening: The forged rail clips are transferred to quenching tank. Dimensional accuracy and quench hardness of rail clips are checked before tempering.

• Tempering: The rail clips are tempered at about 350 Celsius to achieve appropriate toughness in the spring.

• Inspection: The products are then checked thoroughly as per China CRCC and customer required specification and design.

• Packing: Clips can be packed in woven bags or upon customer requirement.

Major Rail Clip Types

As an OEM & OBM manufacturer, GNEE RAILWAY RAILWAYL 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.

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