Enhanced rail repairs could ‘significantly improve the safety, productivity and reliability of Australia’s hundred billion dollar mining industry’, according to research by ESAB, the world leading welding equipment company.
“It is vital for those responsible for rail networks to look in depth at productive and safe ways to repair of this crucial piece of economic infrastructure and ESAB’s study offers the insight they need,” says Tamas Sandor, Head of Global Rail and Repair & Joining Manager at ESAB.
Just under half of the 853m tonnes of freight carried on Australian trains last year was iron ore and over a third coal.
With a single train typically carrying a load of upwards of 30,000 tonnes, the timely repair of rails is crucial to safety and financial return.
In many parts of Australia, however, the back-log of rail repairs is growing year on year, while rail freight too is rising.
Freight volume rose 12% last year, underlining the large and growing importance of rail reliability to the success of Australia’s economy.
Weld failure can reverse any savings that can come from choosing on-site rail repair over rail replacement.
ESAB’s research paper offers a range of solutions which offer reliability and efficiency beyond that which comes from the traditional reliance on highly-skilled operators.
The paper analyses the benefits of highly-portable, mechanised welding systems which can allow for rapid repairs and precise control over key welding parameters, such as heat-input, so delivering immediate and long-term productivity benefits.
The study also describes how on-site welding can be ‘significantly improved by considering the metallurgical issues involved, including the relative benefits of using carbon-manganese and austentitic-manganese materials’.
The study considers the part all these variables play in a variety of routine repair operations, among them the surfacing of rail-heads, rebuilding of crossings and joining of rails.
