ADVERTORIAL


TRACK SYSTEMSSUPPLEMENT 05


Heat Treated High Performance Rails


– ECONOMIC BENEFIT AND TECHNOLOGICAL NECESSITY


The market positioning of voestalpine Schienen GmbH, an affiliated company of the voestalpine Division Railway Systems, is built on technical innovation and customer value orientation. For many years voestalpine has been a leading pioneer of lifecycle-cost (LCC) and performance (RAMS) strategies.


With its large scope of HSH® (‘Head Special Hardened’) heat treated rail steel grades, all of them deliverable also in ultra-long weld-free rail lengths up to 120m, voestalpine is the only supplier which combines these two basic benefit factors in one rail product. In addition to many track tests around the


world, the acknowledged lower rate of degradation of heat treated rail grades has also led to the general recommendation of the European Union-sponsored railway track research project INNOTRACK for deployment in curves with radii below 5,000m (INNOTRACK Deliverable Report D4.1.GL).


VOESTALPINE SCHIENEN GMBH


voestalpine Schienen offers the largest scope of heat treated rail steel grades worldwide with an optimised solution for any duty condition:


350HT HSH® (heat treated) for mixed traffic


and high-speed 350LHT HSH®


(heat treated and alloyed) for


mixed traffic and freight networks 370LHT HSH®


(heat treated and alloyed)


for mixed traffic and freight networks 400UHC HSH®


(hypereutectoid heat


treated) for high tonnage and narrow curves, overseas heavy haul applications


HSH® G especially for grooved rails


(‘put-in-and-forget’) HSH®


GM especially for grooved rails


(can be re-profiled by deposit welding without preheating).


Our markets Indeed, HSH® Premium Rails are in service and prove their worth in almost all countries of the European Union (including the major networks) and the European Economic Area (including Switzerland and Norway). Overseas, it is not just the large rail markets


such as Brazil, India and Australia that are traditionally served. “There are constant additions to our premium rail client list, recently by countries which from a first glance would not be considered typical users of heat treated rail steel grades, such as Argentina, Sri Lanka and Vietnam,” says Frederick Kübler, Managing Director of voestalpine Schienen GmbH and responsible for Sales & Marketing. “We have also already built up a substantial position in the Middle East which will certainly be strengthened further. Very recently, another major break-through for our HSH® rails has been achieved in Russia.” Russian Railways (RZD) awarded


voestalpine Schienen with a multi-annual supply agreement for ultra-long heat treated rails to meet the tough requirements of the Russian high-speed railway construction programme. The rails are rolled and deep head hardened at voestalpine’s dedicated rail mill in Austria, the largest in Europe, then transported on a just-in-time basis to the to the Russian gauge transfer point at Brest where RZD accepts delivery.


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Our customer benefit proposition “Our mission is helping our customers to substantially reduce life-cycle cost, while at the same time track performance must be significantly increased,” says Mr. Kübler. “Given the challenges and opportunities for modern railways, more and more infrastructure managers around the globe understand that not the cheapest, only the most cost-effective products make operational and commercial sense. Of course we support this view on the basis of our decade-long experience and future- oriented technology which is the result of massive R&D and investment.” Mr. Kübler continues: “In a way, it is a


success which we owe to our customers worldwide, namely that already today two thirds of our production and sales is in the area of heat treated high performance rails.”


BIOGRAPHY


Dipl.-Ing. Frederick Kübler is Managing Director of voestalpine Schienen GmbH


CONTACT DETAILS


voestalpine Schienen GmbH


Kerpelystrasse 199, 8700 Leoben, Austria Tel: +43/50304/26-7


Email: info.schienen@voestalpine.com Web: www.voestalpine.com/schienen


European Railway Review Volume 18, Issue 2, 2012


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