Source: https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/sail-bhilai-supplies-4-000-tonnes-of-heat-treated-rails-to-railways-124061000616_1.html
Publisher: Business Standard
Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the Chhattisgarh-based entity of SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited), has so far dispatched four rakes (1,000 tonnes each) of R350 heat-treated (HT) rails from its modern universal rail mill to the Indian Railways.
The Railways has been demanding micro-alloyed and HT rails from SAIL as the national transporter is in the process of modernising itself and moving towards faster rail transportation with higher axle loads.
Along with the regular production of micro-alloyed R260 grade rails, the BSP’s universal rail mill has taken up trail rolling of HT rails after it received the demand from the Railways.
The commercial production of R350 HT rails started at the universal rail mill in October last year after successful trials and clearance from the research wings of SAIL and the Railways.
The special grade HT rails are used in stretches of rail transportation where axle load and speeds are higher with faster acceleration and deceleration of trains, thereby resulting in more friction between the wheels and rails.
The first lot of 1000 tonnes of 260-metre-long R350 HT rails was dispatched to Indian Railways on October 31, 2023. So far, four rakes of R350 HT rails have been dispatched. Each rake has 1000 tonnes of 260 metre long rails.
BSP has been fulfilling the Railways requirement of rails in desired grades for over six decades. It rolls out the world’s longest 130 metre rails in single piece from its universal rail mill and supplies 260 metre welded rail panels to the Railways.
To fulfill the requirement of micro-alloyed rails, SAIL-Bhilai has developed a new grade of rails named R260 with new 60 E1 profile, which is being rolled out and supplied to Indian Railways from July 2022. The new grade has more stringent norms and specifications than Grade-880 or UTS-90 rails that SAIL-Bhilai was producing earlier.
On April 24, SAIL-Bhilai dispatched three rakes of R350 HT rails along with a dispatch of 56 rakes of R260 rails in “combo rolling” mode. Fourth rakes of HT rails were produced in three days with an average of 10 hour rolling per day. Prime acceptance of HT rails has also significantly increased compared to the campaign for the first rake in the last financial year.
