340 Dobain® HSH® THE NEW DIMENSION IN RAIL STEEL

Rolling contact fatigue defects are fundamental issues. In times of increasing transportation, the demand for more safety and customer satisfaction is the foundation of economic and social responsibility. This is where voestalpine as a steel pioneer assists and offers optimized and sustainable solutions to our customers – reverting to more than 100 years of experience in rail production, an exceptional expertise of engineers and unique portfolio of profiles and steel grades.

The R&D focus of voestalpine Rail Technology has always been on the development of high quality steels adapted to the specific fields of application. Supported by close customer contact and the application of LCC and RAMS strategies for our customers, voestalpine is familiar with the daily business of operators and their problems. This knowledge is collected and implemented in the development process of new rail steels – customer-based material design made in Donawitz, Austria.

The ultimate goal of voestalpine is to provide a product according to the needs of our customers. Of course this is only possible if we know and understand the problem.

Due to their microstructure, conventional pearlitic rail steels are susceptible to rolling contact fatigue (RCF). While voestalpine’s HSH® concept for pearlitic rail steels is able to improve the resistance against all typical rail defects and enables a delay of the Head Check initiation as well as crack growth, it is limited by its microstructure and steel design.

A simple mechanism. Nature knows many ways to adapt to harsh environments. One well known mechanism is self-cleaning or polishing – a feature some plants take advantage of to protect their surface and ensure their functionality.

The so-called Lotos effect. voestalpine’s highly experienced R&D team managed to apply this simple concept of nature to the rail development and launched a new dimension in rail steel.

Our solution - THE NEW DIMENSION IN RAIL STEEL. The new multiphase steel design of 340 Dobain® HSH® uses its microstructural features and prevents the formation of Head Checks. A self-polishing effect responds to the severe loading situation and reduces the deformation on the surface to a minimum. The Lotos effect applied to rails. As a result we are able to produce a rail with lowest maintenance needs.

INSPIRÉ PAR LA NATURE

Nos concepteurs d'acier se sont inspirés de la nature pour un avenir durable. En suivant la systématique de l'effet feuille de lotos, nous présentons le 340 Dobain® HSH® comme le premier rail avec polissage de la microstructure pour optimiser les coûts du cycle de vie.

En tant que fournisseur complet de rails, voestalpine propose la plus large gamme de profils et d'aciers pour rails, adaptés à tous les domaines d'application et à tous les concepts de maintenance, en combinant notre traitement thermique HSH® avec des concepts de matériaux adaptés et nouveaux.

RECOMMANDATION

En fonction du mécanisme de défaut de rail prédominant, nous définissons des domaines d'application appropriés pour nos qualités de rail. Pour les voies sensibles aux head checks, la solution est notre 340 Dobain® HSH®. Dans les zones d'usure accrue et d'ondulation, nous recommandons nos autres rails à structure perlitique. Les retours d’expérience les plus récents montrent que cette stratégie permet d'obtenir la durée de vie la plus longue et, en raison de la réduction de la maintenance, les coûts de cycle de vie les plus bas.

Pour tous les aciers ferroviaires de qualité supérieure, la technologie HSH® permet d'obtenir une soudabilité et une résistance maximales en minimisant la quantité d'éléments d'alliage.

voestalpine offre un portefeuille unique de services supplémentaires aux clients :

Si vous avez des questions ou des commentaires, n'hésitez pas à nous contacter. Nous sommes heureux de vous aider !