Team News Riveting
Raipur, April 22
The second rake with around 1000 Tonnes of R350 heat-treated rails in 260 metre length was despatched to Indian Railways from SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant on 20th April 2024.
Indian Railways that is modernizing itself & moving towards faster rail transportation with higher axle loads has been demanding both micro-alloyed rails and heat-treated rails from SAIL.
Bhilai Steel Plant that has been fulfilling Indian Railway’s requirement of rails in desired grades for over six decades, rolls out the world’s longest 130 metre rails in single piece from its modern Universal Rail Mill (URM) and supplies 260 metre welded rail panels to Indian Railways.
To fulfill the requirement of micro-alloyed rails, SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant had developed a new grade of rails named R260 with new 60 E1 profile, which is being rolled out and supplied to Indian Railways since July 2022. This new grade of rails has norms and specifications more stringent than Grade-880 or UTS-90 rails that SAIL-Bhilai was producing earlier and even European standards.
Along with the regular production of R260 grade rails, the Plant’s modern Universal Rail Mill (URM) had taken up trail rolling of heat-treated rails as per the demand of Indian Railways. Following successful trials, tests at SAIL’s research wing RDCIS and clearance from Indian Railway’s research wing RDSO, commercial production of R350 HT rails started at Universal Rail Mill in October 2023. The first lot of 1000 Tonnes of R350HT rails in 260 metre length was dispatched to Indian Railways by Bhilai Steel Plant on 31st October 2023.
These special grade heat-treated rails that are under field trials now in southern parts on India, are best suited for those stretches of rail transportation where axle load is higher and there is faster acceleration and deceleration of trains, thereby resulting in more friction between the wheels and rails.
