Why is heat treatment used in the production of Rail Clips?
In the railway track system, rail clips, often called an elastic rail clips, railway clips. What's function of rail clips? Through the bending deformation of the elastic rail clips, the buckle pressure acts on the track, which can effectively ensure the reliable connection between the rail.
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.
| Name | Rail clip | |||
| Type | E clip (e1809, e2006,e2007,e2009,etc) | |||
| Skl clip (skl1,skl3,skl12,skl14) | ||||
| Or the type by customers' drawings | ||||
| Material | 60Si2MnA | 60Si2CrA | 55Si2Mn | 38Si7 |
| Chemical composition(%) | C:0.56-0.64, Mn:0.60-0.90, Si:1.60-2.00, Cr:≤0.35, P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03 | C:0.56-0.64, Mn:0.40-0.70, Si:1.40-1.80,Cr:0.70-1.00 P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03 | C:0.52-0.60, Mn:0.60-0.90, Si:1.50-2.00,Cr:≤0.35 P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03 | C:0.35-0.42, Mn:0.50-0.80, Si:1.50-1.80, P:≤0.03, S:≤0.03 |
| Hardness | For e clip: 44-48HRC | |||
| For skl clip: 42-47HRC | ||||
| Fatigue life | for Dia.18 is 3 millions cycles without breaking | |||
| for Dia.20 is 5 millions cycles without breaking | ||||
| Surface | plain (oiled), Oxide black, color painting, HDG, Zinc Plating... | |||
| Standard refers | DIN17221, BS970, GB/T1222 | |||
Heat treatment is used in the production of rail clips to increase their strength, hardness, and durability, allowing them to withstand the heavy loads of trains while remaining flexible. It hardens the steel to improve yield strength and prevent breakage, and can also enhance wear resistance and the overall lifespan of the clip.
Key reasons for using heat treatment:
- Increased strength and hardness: Heat treatment hardens the steel, which increases its yield strength and ability to bear the immense loads from passing trains.
- Improved durability: By making the clips harder and more resistant to wear and abrasion, heat treatment extends their service life.
- Enhanced flexibility: A specific heat treatment process, which can include tempering, is used to ensure the clips have the necessary elasticity to perform their function while remaining tough, preventing them from becoming brittle.
- Fatigue resistance: Heat treatment helps the clips maintain their strength and fatigue resistance over many cycles of stress.
- Uniform performance: Heat treatment ensures consistent performance across all fasteners, which is critical for maintaining the stability of the entire railway track.
What's the function of rail clip?
- Rail track supports vehicle and is fixed to the railway sleeper by rail fastening system. As the core part of rail fastening system, the bending and distortion of rail clip will produce crimping force on the rail track, which ensure the reliable connection between rail tracks and keep the integrity of rail track. Besides, the rigid contact of vehicle and rail track will cause vibration, the elastic structure of rail clip can absorb the impact energy during the train operation, reduce the shocking. The elastic rail clip works under the repeated alternating stress. It bears various effects such as bending, torsion, fatigue and corrosion. When the vehicle passes, it also bears extremely high instantaneous impact load.
- With the increase of the axle load of railway vehicles and the improvement of train running speed, as well as the development of urban rail transit and subway, the rail clip, as a key link of the track structure, are also constantly developing, and its importance has attracted more and more attention from various countries. It needs elastic rail clips with different performance to meet the requirements of different track. For example, in the conventional line, it requires elastic rail clip to meet the needs of heavy load and high-speed lines. However, in the seamless track of viaduct, in order to reduce the interaction between the rail and the bridge, the fastener resistance is required to be small, the elastic rail clip is guaranteed to have a low degree of steel, so as to ensure that the buckle pressure loss caused by the compression of the underlayer of the rail when the train passes, and the fastener is not loose.
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.
