Study of Melting Methods by Electric Resistance Welding of Rails

An analysis of the results of rail operation shows that up to a third of all rail breaks in the railway line and up to 12.9% of all withdrawn acute defective rails are associated with welded joints. This is largely explained by the formation of structures with martensite sections in the welded joints of rails and the formation of burns. This work presents the results of studying welded joints, obtained under three welding modes (continuous flash welding, pulsating flash welding and combined flash welding). The conducted studies have shown that the flash welding mode significantly influences both the cooling rate value and the very nature of the thermal cycle of the welded joint as a whole. Changes in the cooling rate under different modes exert a significant influence on the structure and properties of the weld. Resistance welding of rails from the steel grade E76HGF by pulsating flash welding can result in the appearance of needle martensite areas, which is the reason for increased embrittlement of the weld and a decrease in its properties. The conducted field experiments have reliably shown that in the conditions of the combined welding mode it becomes possible to avoid these problems. Moreover, a slight increase in the mechanical properties of the weld in the range of 2–4% has been experimentally recorded, and the destructive load of the welded joint of the rail increases by 2–3% at high values of the bending deflection. In turn, these factors allow a significant reduction in the number of cases of rail welded-joint failures in real conditions of their operation.