Railway Age May 2021

Page 26

M/W focus

EXTENDING RAIL LIFE

WITH PRECISION Grinding, milling and welding product overview and market outlook. egular steel rail maintenance not only extends service life, but also helps ensure safety. That’s why suppliers of grinding, milling and welding equipment and services are always fine-tuning and introducing new offerings to meet railroad needs. They discuss those—and today’s market—below. HOLLAND LP As industry conditions continue to improve, welding customers are looking to increase work efficiency and scheduling flexibility, Holland told Railway Age. And market demand is changing—from large rail gangs installing new rail to smaller gangs and more repair welding work. “Holland’s MobileWelders are being deployed more 24 Railway Age // May 2021

frequently for smaller jobs, taking advantage of the short cycle times of flash-butt welding,” the company said. Holland equipment produces more than 250,000 flash-butt welds per year. “Each of those welds provides us with numerous data points in real-time via our Intelliweld operating system,” it reported. “The system allows us to pinpoint potential issues as they happen and easily tailor our weld programs to customer requirements.” The company’s Weld Quality Lab, coupled with weld data collection, “helps us achieve the highest level of weld quality— over 5.5 sigma quality performance—and continually work to minimize the heataffected zone of the weld.” Initially developed in early 2019, Holland now has two mobile laser welding units,

providing manganese frog repair service. The robotically controlled welding process reduces heating of the base frog material using laser additive manufacturing technology. “The LaserWelder technology also provides significant long-term savings for railroads by extending the life of the repairs and the frogs,” Holland said. “Initial repairs are now approaching two years of service, with most over 100 MGT of traffic. Some will soon be approaching 150 MGT with minimal maintenance grinding required.” The company is expanding, and now offers the Holland Rail Services Australia division, which is performing work in the Pilbara mining region. “We have two in-track MobileWelders operating in Australia, with a third in-country and undergoing commissioning,” Holland said. railwayage.com

Holland MobileWelder

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BY MARYBETH LUCZAK, EXECUTIVE EDITOR


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