High Manganese Steel: The Ideal Choice For Railway Rails

Rail is the main component of railway track. Its function is to guide the wheels of locomotives and vehicles forward, bear the huge pressure of the wheels, and transmit it to the sleepers. Rails must provide a continuous, smooth and least resistant rolling surface for wheels. In electrified railways or automatic block sections, rails can also be used as track circuits. Why don't railway rails use stainless steel?

In fact, railway scientists have already thought about it carefully. When they choose the material of rails, they need to consider many factors comprehensively. Although stainless steel is beautiful, its lack of hardness is its fatal weakness. In extreme environments such as heat and high pressure generated by train operation, stainless steel rails are easy to deform and cannot ensure the safety of trains. Therefore, it is not suitable as a rail material.

You can try to scratch stainless steel products with a knife a few times, and you will find that scratches are easy to appear. This is because stainless steel has low hardness and is not wear-resistant. Although stainless steel has the advantages of rust and corrosion resistance, its performance is still not enough to meet safety standards in this critical area of ​​railway transportation.

The special material used to make rails is called high manganese steel, which has a higher manganese and carbon content than ordinary steel products, giving it excellent hardness and toughness. This material can show excellent stability in extreme situations such as high-speed trains, and its own characteristics will not be reduced by external factors. Although the tracks made of high manganese steel may be slightly inferior to stainless steel in appearance, and will rust due to years of wear and tear and natural erosion, its internal structure remains intact.

What's more, its surface hardness will increase significantly after being impacted by the friction of train wheels. Therefore, high manganese steel is undoubtedly the ideal choice for rail materials. While ensuring safety and practicality, we are willing to sacrifice some beauty.