Deveopment and Manufacture of High Strength Wear Resistant Rails in Bhilai Steel Plant; India

摘要

The manufacture of rails has undergone major changes and improvements over the years, keeping pace with the increasingly stringent requirements of the Railways, catering to the needs of enhanced traffic density and demand for faster service. During the initial periods, improvement in the rail section design, starting from double headed to flat footed was a major fiel of activity in the rail manufacturing area. However, the recent decades have sithessed revolutionary developments in the railway track operation with the introduction of diesel and electric traction, heavier axle loads, higher speed and continuous welded rtrack, thus, imposing an extremely complex stress environment upon the rails during service. Suc conditions have placed very exacting demand on the quality of raild, which, it has been possible to meet through far reaching advances that have been taken place i nthe metallurgical processes world-over. Bhilai Steel Plant, a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited, is the sole producer of rails in India. Keeping pace with the developments around the world, it has introduced several technological facilities, encompassing the vital area of rail production right form steel making and casting to rolling, finishing testing, for meeting the requirements of Indian Railways, the second Largest railwaysystem in the world.