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.
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.
Published: 20 February 2024
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for rails was already in operation at the former Huta Katowice steelworks in Poland in the 1980s, but it was based on outdated technology and was closed down in the early 1990s.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.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Poland
Constructalia
Images:
ArcelorMittal Europe