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SUMMARY
High capacity traffic poses a great challenge for welded joints. A new mobile flash-butt welding
process using a welding robot is an important development specifically for the high demands made by
high speed and heavy haul rail traffic. The cornerstones of this new development are that the whole
process is fully automatic, including measured alignment of the rail ends; direct current (DC) is
applied; the cooling process is temperature controlled; an integrated pulling device enables to conduct
closure welds and pulse welding which reduces the rail consumption. The whole process is fast and
the weld quality is far above stringent standards as the new European Standard EN14587-2 and
therefore has potential to reduce cost to produce long welded rails and also cost of repair welds.
Today welding machines are built in different 2.1. Application on Heavy Haul Railways
designs by a number of suppliers according to in North America
the operating requirements. There are
fully rail-mounted machines, The demands on the welded joints of heavy
road-rail machines based on a commercial haul railways are particularly high. From
truck or an earth-moving machine, August 1988 the test centre of the AAR in
container design – housing all components Pueblo, Colorado (today TTCI) tested the
in a container of standard dimensions, effects of the increase of the axle loads from
self-loading machines, and 33 to 39 US tons (29.9 to 35.4 metric tonnes).
machines with an additional rail stretcher. The results were presented in a Workshop
held by the International Heavy Haul
Plasser & Theurer developed the APT 500 Association from 14th to 17th October 1990 in
[3]
series (Figure 1 and Figure 2) and the APT Pueblo, Colorado . The following figures are
600 with an integrated rail puller (Figure 3). from the report and therefore the original US
tons are quoted (1 US ton = 0.907 metric
tonnes). In one 5° curve (radius = 349 m) and
one 6° curve (radius = 291 m), welded joints
that had been produced using different
welding methods were subjected to fatigue
loading tests. The results can be summarised
as follows:
Failure rate
2.2. Worldwide application of MFBW
Axle Traffic
Load load Inside
US t mtpa Outside rail
rail
For high capacity railways with high speed or
heavy haul operation the quality and reliability
33 65 29% 0%
of welds is a crucial feature. Therefore flash-
39 65 67% 13% butt welding nowadays is the preferred method
39 82
83% in 5° curve,
- of rail welding on such railways. The majority
92% in 6° curve of production field welds is done with mobile
39 144 - 75% flash-butt welding machines, but also for
Table 1: Failure rates of aluminothermic closure welds on continuous welded rail and
welding for repair welds there is a growing demand for
MFBW.
2.1.2 Stationary Flash Butt Welding (SFBW)
With the increase of speeds and axle loads
Here even after 145 million tons the failure rate also the quality demands on welds are rising.
was only between 4 and 9% at 39 ton axle Acceptance standards have become more
load (Table 2) stringent and some can hardly be met by the
units available today.
Failure rate
Curvature
in compression during removal of the Alignment Class Class Class Class Class
excess upset material. of weld 1 2 3 4 5
Vertically at
All welds must be carried out according to the running
+0,3 +0.4 +0.3 +0.3 +0.2
programmed and automatic sequences +0.1 0 -0.2 -0,15 -0.1
surface
The welding parameters are determined Grinding Max. 400mm on
Max. 600mm
by means of welding tests and must not be length both sides
Horizontally +0.3
altered once approval has been given. at rail head 0
± 0.4 ± 0.5 ± 0.5 ± 0.5
Grinding Max. 400mm on
Max. 300mm
Table 3 for example shows the maximum length both sides
permitted offset of the rail ends after welding. Evenness of
running
surface
Position of the offset Maximum measured 0.15 0.20 0.20 0.15 0.10
permitted over the
offset grinding
Vertically in the centreline of the running 0.5 mm length
surface
Horizontally at the aligned head side or
Table 5: Geometrical tolerances in mm
the running edge, measured 14 mm below 0.5 mm
rail surface 4. THE NEW WELDING ROBOT
Horizontally on both edges of rail foot 2.0 mm
Table 3: Offset tolerance The requirements for increased quality to be
met by a mobile flash-butt welding process
The permitted tolerance of the weld bead after demanded further development of the existing
trimming is shown in Table 4 welding process. For the APT 1500 R welding
robot (Figure 4) the flash-butt welding process
Maximum was engineered from scratch.
Zone Position of bead bead
permitted transformers
Whole bead profile, from lower
and current pulling cylinder
edge of the head on the running
1 2.5 mm supply
edge side to the lower edge on
the opposite side
Treated surface at the underside
1+ 3.0 mm
of the head
Web, from the upper transition
2 radius down to start of the lower 2.5 mm
transition radius
Rail foot, including the outside
radii from web to rail foot edge
3
and the whole underside of the
2.0 mm trimming device
rail foot. auxiliary clamps
Table 4: Tolerance of weld bead after
trimming Figure 4: Welding robot APT 1500 R
Every new welding process has to be certified. 4.1. The Welding Process
The approval tests have to be carried out on
weld samples of rail type (profile) 60E1 or An important advance is that the process of
60E2 and steel quality R260. The samples aligning the rails has been included in the
have to be tested by a certified body. The automatic work sequence. In practical
main test phases are: operation this means that the welding robot
Visual check only has to be lowered onto the welding area.
Trimming and examination of weld bead Then the fully automatic work process begins,
Offset of rail ends starting with the height alignment of the rails.
Magnetic particle test or dye penetrant test To do this, the auxiliary clamps raise the rails
Bending test to the highest points and so immediately
Macro examination achieve the required slight upward inclination.
Micro examination The clamping jaws hold both rails firm. Four
Hardness test P -30HV30, +60HV30 P = distance transducers measure the exact
average measured hardness of the rail alignment of the top of the rail. After selecting
before welding the running edge, there is an accurate lateral
Fatigue strength test alignment. The automatic aligning process is
now completed.
Table 5 shows the limits of deviations in weld
geometry at ambient temperature
After applying the current-carrying clamps, the welding of rails with high strength including
welding process commences with the unstable R400HT and bainitic rails. For the accelerated
phase. Any impurities are burned out of the rail cooling of head-hardened rails, there are
cross-sections. This is followed by the stable nozzles incorporated that supply a stream of
phase with a continuous input of current for a air directly to the area of the rail head.
uniform burn-off. After this within the
progressive phase there is an increase of Figure 5 shows a cooling diagram. Only with
current to burn out impurities such as air controlled delay of the cooling process the
inclusions or material defects. After completion perlite stage of the steel can be achieved.
of the progressive phase the upset stroke is
performed immediately and directly afterwards
the excess upset is trimmed off. During
trimming the weld is in compression as defined
in the standard, moreover all clamping jaws
remain closed and they additionally support
the rail as it cools. Pressure measurements in
the two pulling cylinders have also shown that
the trimming process has a negligible effect on
the forces applied. Afterwards, the current-
carrying clamps and the clamping jaws are
opened and the welding robot can be raised. A
welding report is compiled automatically by the
software from the parameters continually
recorded during the welding (Appendix 1).
features which facilitate this process, the three 5 CERTIFICATION OF THE WELDING
most important being: ROBOT
the maximum pulling distance of 200 mm.
This enables closure welds to be The new welding robot has been successfully
performed under a wide variety of certified in Germany and Austria according to
conditions. EN14587-2. The test samples rails were to
The tractive force, which at 1500 kN is UIC60E1 and UIC54E2 of rail grade R260.
very generous. The longitudinal forces The high standards required by EN14587-2
involved in closure welds are the friction were not only fulfilled, but surpassed by the
force necessary to pull the rails, the welding robot. Table 6 shows that the
stretching force caused by the minimum deflection should be 22 mm - the
temperature difference, and the upset achieved minimum was 37.3 mm. The
force. Calculations show that even rails up minimum break force should be 1600 kN - the
to a total length of 720 metre can be pulled minimum achieved was 1805 kN. Some of the
without difficulties. (one side 720 metre or probes did not even break.
360 metre each side of the welding head)
The trimming process: trimming must be Rail
Weld
Weld Force Deflection cycle
carried out immediately after the upset Consumed.
time
stroke. Clamping jaws and trimming tools Nr. [kN] [mm] [mm] [s]
are therefore positioned so that it is
possible to trim the weld immediately after 1 1871 39.7 38 132
the upset stroke without having to open 2 1963 50.7 39 139
the clamping jaws. This fulfils an important 3 1805 39.1 41 133
requirement of the standard which states 4 1868 42.8 34 135
that the weld shall be in compression
5 1825 38.1 37 132
during removal of excess upset.
6 2000 52.9 36 130
7 2000 53 37 131
8 2000 57.8 35 140
9 2000 52.4 39 131
10 2000 53.8 36 131
11 1900 39.3 37 130
12 2000 49.4 34 131
13 1844 37.3 35 131
14 1846 38.9 35 142
15 2000 55 35 137
16 2000 58,9 33 130
5.2 Hardness
Appendix 1: Graphical welding report and spread sheet with welding data