STRAILway replaces wooden sleepers in steelworks
Facts
- Location: Salzgitter steelworks, Germany
- Period: May 2018
- Client: Verkehrsbetriebe Peine-Salzgitter GmbH
- Products: STRAILway turnout sleepers
- Length/quantity: 89.3 running meters / 20 pieces
- Max. axle load: 37.5 t
- Max. speed : 25 km/h
- Conditions: 54E4 rails
Advantages
- Service life > 50 years
- Particularly resistant to all environmental influences
- Suitable for heavy loads
- No fitting of baseplates, no sheared screw heads
- Excellent screw extraction force
Project description
Between the blast furnace and the rolling mill, operations at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH – a subsidiary of the Salzgitter Group – run at full capacity. Every year, around 15 million gross tons move across the track system, including its turnouts. The wooden sleepers previously in use could only withstand this immense load to a limited extent and had to be replaced every five to seven years at considerable expense. The company was therefore looking for a solution that is low-maintenance, long-lasting, and fully capable of handling heavy-load operations.
The answer was the STRAILway polymer sleeper. In addition to its excellent load-bearing capacity, the decisive factor was its minimal maintenance effort.
- No settlement issues: no need to work ballast or baseplates into the sleeper.
- Maintenance-free: screws do not require regular retightening.
- Repairable: even in the rare event of a sheared screw, the sleeper can be repaired quickly without needing a full replacement.
The polymer sleepers installed in 2018 have been proving their quality day after day in the harsh reality of industrial operations. Even after several years under extreme loads, the sleepers remain in almost as-new condition. For Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, this translates into significantly reduced lifecycle costs and markedly improved availability of the plant railway.
