What materials are commonly used in the manufacture of rail spikes?

Basically railroad spikes are made out of the following materials: Q235 carbon steel, Q 345B carbon steel, Q345D carbon steel, 45# (GB standard) carbon steel, 40Cr steel, 35CrMoA steel and 20MnTiB.

The differences of the material that used for making railroad spikes:

• Q235 carbon steel: it features in good plastic property, toughness and welding performance. It also has good cold pressing and bending. The Q235 carbon steel is always used for parts and welding structure application with average requirements.

• 45# carbon steel: it is the most used medium carbon steel. Good comprehensive mechanical properties. It is easy to crack in cold pressing. It is widely used for manufacturing moving parts with higher strength, such as gears, shafts, teeth, etc.

• Q345 carbon steel: Good comprehensive mechanical properties, good processing performance with cold and hot pressing. Good corrosion resistance. It is typically used in the welding structural parts with high loading, such as ships, boilers, pressure vessel, crude oil tank, bridge, power plant equipments, crane, etc.

• 40Cr steel: after conditioning, it has good comprehensive mechanical properties, toughness in low temperature impact. Poor welding property, easy crack. It is one of the most used steel. You can find this material in gears, shafts, worm, sleeve, pin, rod, screw, bolt, valve, etc.

Customers can choose railroad spikes made out of the material that they need.Send your special customization requirements to GNEE.

Generally speaking, there are two types of rail spikes: dog spike and screw spike. These two types of rail spikes are different both in shape and function.

Dog Spike: Dog spike is used to fasten T-shaped railroad track to wooden ties that have an L-shaped head and a square shank. The bottom of the head is sloped to match the slope of the flange of a rail and the tip is wedge-shaped, not pointed. The wedge is driven into the tie across the grain, which means the wedge is parallel to the track. The square cross section gives a railroad dog spike much higher holding strength than a fastener having the same amount of metal but a circular cross section has; roughly speaking, about 50% more. Dog spike with the wedge driven across the grain will have about twice as much holding power as one driven with the grain. Early experiments showed that pulling out a 9/16" × 9/16" spike driven 4¼ inches into dry cedar required on average a force of 857 pounds. In seasoned oak, another experimenter needed 4281 pounds.

Screw Spike: A screw spike, rail screw (or lag bolt) is a large (~6 in or 152 mm length, slightly under 1 in or 25 mm) metal screw used to fix a tie plate or fasten rail. Screw spikes are fixed into a hole bored in the sleeper. The screw spike has a higher cost to manufacture than the rail spike but has the advantage of greater fixing power; approximately twice that of a rail spike and can be used in combination with spring washers. The screw spike was first applied in 1860 in France (French tire-fond), then became common in continental Europe. It can be said a dog screw is a trade name variant of the screw spike.

Here are all common types of railroad spike, you can choose as you need. GNEE RAIL can supply railroad spike with customization, as a professional railway fastener manufacturer, we also provide steel rail, rail joint bar, rail clip, rail pad, rail bolt and other part of railway fastening system.

For more information – Get in touch now!