About Metrovalencia
Valencia is the third city in Spain to have an underground metro network, with Metrovalencia inaugurated in October 1988. The new Line 10 allows the inhabitants of the Nazareth district to reach the centre of Valencia thanks to two additional kilometres of track with eight new stops.
More rail news
An innovative head hardened rail from ArcelorMittal will improve railway safety
20 February 2024Over PLN 200 million (EUR 46 million). This was the cost of the research and development projects designed to improve the innovativeness of rails produced at ArcelorMittal’s Dąbrowa Górnicza mill in Poland. One of the results? The mill’s portfolio has been expanded to include extremely durable, strong head hardened rails with significantly better properties than standard rails – even exceeding the requirements of standards in certain aspects.
Product newsArcelorMittal crane rails in Sri Lanka’s largest port
4 December 2023From port and terminal projects to giant cranes, ArcelorMittal crane rails are used in many applications and can be found in ports on all continents.ArcelorMittal Europe - Long Products contributed to new terminal project in the capital city of Colombo in Sri Lanka by supplying MRS87A grade 90 crane rails from its Rails & Special Sections mill in Rodange, Luxembourg. These rails have a high protection coating (level C5) to protect them against corrosion, achieving the desired level of protection and maintaining their specifications.
Project newsArcelorMittal Europe launches new crane rail grade
8 August 2022ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products’ Rails & Special Sections has launched R340, a top wear performance crane rail grade for heavy loads, allowing customers to optimise their Life Cycle cost. Designed in the ArcelorMittal Rail Excellence Centre (Global R&D), R340 combines optimum process parameters with ad-hoc chemical composition. This new grade with higher mechanical properties and hardness was specifically designed for heavy loads.
Product news
An innovative head hardened rail from ArcelorMittal will improve railway safety
Over PLN 200 million (EUR 46 million). This was the cost of the research and development projects designed to improve the innovativeness of rails produced at ArcelorMittal’s Dąbrowa Górnicza mill in Poland. One of the results? The mill’s portfolio has been expanded to include extremely durable, strong head hardened rails with significantly better properties than standard rails – even exceeding the requirements of standards in certain aspects.
Meeting customer expectations via innovation
The research and development project for heat-treated rail cost over PLN 105 million (EUR 24 million), was co-financed by the National Centre for Research and Development from the European Regional Development Fund (over PLN 42.5 million/EUR 9.8 million), and began in 2018. Intensive work on an innovative type of rail has yielded results: a product that meets and even exceeds strict European standards.
“The demand for heat-treated rails that are harder and have better mechanical properties than standard, non-heat-treated rails is growing strongly,” explains Sanjay Samaddar, president of ArcelorMittal Poland. “That is why we decided to develop this type of rail that we did not have in our portfolio in Poland - to meet the expectations of our customers.”
An interesting fact to note is that a heat treatment line for rails was already in operation at the former Huta Katowice steelworks in Poland in the 1980s, but it was based on outdated technology and was closed down in the early 1990s. Now, 30 years later, this research and development project has developed a modern rail with a hardened head adapted to the latest European and American standards.
“Our product is innovative not because it is heat-treated but because it has a number of properties that meet the ever-increasing requirements of railway companies,” explains Wojciech Koszuta, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland. The high levels of performance of this type of rail are the result of the modification of the microstructure during the heat treatment process, which allows for an increase in the hardness of the rail head and, consequently, its wear resistance.
Directly improving rail safety
“During laboratory testing, our rail was subjected to fatigue tests, among other tests. It is characterised by high resistance to brittle fracture and a low level of residual stress, which directly improves rail safety,” emphasises Ph.D. Eng. Sylwester Żak from ArcelorMittal Poland, who is the head of the R&D team for the project.
The mill in Dąbrowa Górnicza currently produces various rail profiles according to several international standards. The first type of R350HT rail with a hardened head goes into commercial production in this year.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Poland
Constructalia
Images:
ArcelorMittal Europe
Related link(s)
ArcelorMittal crane rails in Sri Lanka’s largest port
From port and terminal projects to giant cranes, ArcelorMittal crane rails are used in many applications and can be found in ports on all continents.
ArcelorMittal Europe - Long Products contributed to new terminal project in the capital city of Colombo in Sri Lanka by supplying MRS87A grade 90 crane rails from its Rails & Special Sections mill in Rodange, Luxembourg. These rails have a high protection coating (level C5) to protect them against corrosion, achieving the desired level of protection and maintaining their specifications.
Complete solutions to meet customers’ requirements
China's Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company (ZPMC) Ltd has won the tender to supply 12 giant cranes and 40 rail mounted automatic gantry cranes for the new port. As a result, ArcelorMittal also supplied A75 crane rails to equip the ZPMC's STS cranes used for the terminal.
ArcelorMittal is a key supplier and partner for this project thanks to our ability to offer complete solutions across our product range and steel grades. "This was possible thanks to the great collaboration between the mill and the commercial teams, which enabled us to achieve good results and meet the customer’s requirements," concludes Frédéric Goujon, ArcelorMittal Product manager for crane, grooved, and light rails.
ArcelorMittal works closely with its customers to develop new or specific rails and products according to their needs, while maintaining a high degree of production flexibility.
New container terminal for Colombo Port
Colombo is Sri Lanka's largest port and handles 90% of the country's maritime cargo, making it an important container port on the East-West maritime route in South Asia.
The new East Container Terminal (ECT) at Colombo Port will feature a 1320-metre-long, 75-hectare container yard, including the connected services needed to operate as a modern container terminal. The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2025.
A road network has been designed to ensure efficient traffic flow for warehouse operations and rail loading. The marshalling area has been designed with a container stacking facility with wagon loading and unloading facilities. Once established, this will serve as an interchange point between road and rail to serve the terminals in the port of Colombo.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia
Images:
© Sri Lanka Ports Authority
© Shutterstock.com/Nandana Rathnayaka
Related link(s)
ArcelorMittal Europe launches new crane rail grade
ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products’ Rails & Special Sections has launched R340, a top wear performance crane rail grade for heavy loads, allowing customers to optimise their Life Cycle cost. Designed in the ArcelorMittal Rail Excellence Centre (Global R&D), R340 combines optimum process parameters with ad-hoc chemical composition. This new grade with higher mechanical properties and hardness was specifically designed for heavy loads.
Top wear performance and increased service life
A specific wear test was designed to assess in-service performance. The results show that R340 is a benchmark in wear resistance compared with other crane rail grades available on the market thanks to its customised microstructure. The combination of customised microalloying in the chemical composition along with a specific rolling process and subsequent air cooling results in this new steel grade with improved hardness and mechanical properties, in addition to a notable life service extension and consequently lower maintenance costs.
“It has been a challenging development due to the ambitious hardness target to be achieved by natural cooling, but with this grade we have gone beyond the limits of the air-cooled pearlitic rail steels. This was possible thanks to the great internal collaboration between the mill and the commercial and R&D teams, which allowed us to achieve good industrial results in record-time. Now we are aiming to go even further. There is already a strong interest from the market and its key players,” concludes Frédéric Goujon, product manager for crane, grooved, and light rails.
R340, which has been approved for welding, has been integrated into the ArcelorMittal crane rails technical specifications and is available on the entire crane and special rails range.
Related link(s)
ArcelorMittal rails: from Luxembourg to Metrovalencia
Thanks to their high performance and low carbon content, ArcelorMittal Rodange's grooved rails headlined the Iberian market (and others too) in 2021!
Rails with lower carbon content and better performance
ArcelorMittal's mill in Rodange (Luxembourg) specialises in the production of rails. In 2021, it supplied 8000 metres of grooved rails (60R1) for Metrovalencia's new Line 10, an extension of Valencia's underground network that connects the suburbs with the centre of the Spanish coastal city.
The full 8000 metres of rails were made from Low Carbon R290V steel, a grade that stands for less carbon content with better performance, including easy maintenance, welding, and repair welding that increases the service life of embedded rails. Thanks to these characteristics, the rails of the Metrovalencia will have a more sustainable use.
Juan José Gainza, Product development manager at ArcelorMittal Rails & Special sections, is proud of the advantages of this steel: "At ArcelorMittal, we are convinced the use of R290V steel grade on embedded tracks will bring added benefits to our customers, allowing for gauge corner restoration, increased wear resistance, and easier overall maintenance of the rails."
Text:
ArcelorMittal Luxembourg
Constructalia
Images:
ArcelorMittal