Keywords: maintenance free, bainitic, hypereutectoid, wear resistance, rolling contact fatigue resistance.

Since the early days of railway operations, rail degradation caused by continuously increasing train frequencies and axle loads is one of the key motivations for rail grade development. During the last twenty to twenty-five years, rail grade development has focused on heat treated fine-pearlitic rail grades with a Brinell hardness of more than 400BHN and material strength beyond 1300MPa. These rail grades demonstrate an excellent resistance against wear and rolling contact fatigue (RCF) resistance. Nevertheless, these pearlitic rail grades will develop RCF defects (such as head checks or squats) at some point under specific track and loading conditions. In order to keep control of these defects and to prevent catastrophic rail failure as seen in the past, preventive or corrective maintenance actions have to be executed. However, these countermeasures represent significant cost factors. A newly developed rail grade with a special engineered bainitic material structure promises to solve the RCF problem. Laboratory tests on special full scale test rigs at voestalpine Schienen GmbH have been conducted. The results obtained do prove the potential of this bainitic rail grade to successfully mitigate the formation of RCF defects such as head checks. Ongoing track tests in Europe under high speed and mixed traffic conditions show the same promising results so far. This special rail grade provides the potential to drastically reduce if not even completely avoid RCF grinding activities in the future.

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