Laser Cutting Fabrication Helps Railway Safety
How fast is China’s rail transit development? In 40 years, the railway speed has increased fivefold from 80 kilometers per hour to 350 kilometers per hour. In 13 years, the mileage of high-speed rail has increased from 0 to 37,900 kilometers, ranking first in the world.
Not only fast, but also stable. Concerning personal safety, no part of railway construction should be careless, and the high-quality and safe supply of railway materials is the key link in the source.
In recent years, with the rapid development of China’s rail transit, as an important manufacturing technology method in the rail manufacturing industry, laser processing and manufacturing technology has attracted much attention and has greatly promoted the improvement of the rail manufacturing process level. In addition to welding, cutting, surface modification of key parts, marking, drilling and micro-processing, laser cleaning has also become a popular application in rail transit manufacturing in recent years.
With the implementation of the “Made in China 2025” national strategy, high-efficiency and high-quality laser cleaning technology for key components such as aluminum alloy bodies and gearboxes of high-speed trains has become a research hotspot and has been gradually applied in engineering. Facing the trend of lightweight and high-speed rail transit construction, under the background of my country’s industrial upgrading and environmental protection, advanced and pollution-free laser cleaning technology has the technical advantages and development trends to replace most conventional cleaning methods.
The “disruptor” of the cleaning industry
Cleaning operation is one of the indispensable key links in the industrial production process, and plays an important role in improving product quality and prolonging service life. Laser cleaning is a new surface cleaning technology with significant advantages and wide application. Compared with the traditional cleaning method, it has the advantages of good cleaning effect, high control precision, remote control, wide application range, low operating cost, no consumables, maintenance-free, no environmental pollution, cost reduction and efficiency increase.
Laser cleaning technology is based on the outstanding advantages of high efficiency, good effect, non-contact, no damage, and green environmental protection, which is in sharp contrast with traditional cleaning agents, ultrasonic and mechanical cleaning. of favor. After more than 50 years of development, basic research and development of supporting equipment are becoming more and more mature.
As an advanced technology, laser cleaning is considered to be the “disruptor” of the cleaning industry. Laser cleaning technology has a very wide range of applications and has great potential for application value in industrial development, especially in high-end manufacturing fields, such as semiconductors, marine equipment, automobile manufacturing, aerospace, high-speed rail transportation, etc.
Under the background of the country’s vigorous promotion of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, traditional cleaning methods have been unable to meet the application needs of the industrial field, especially in the high-precision application field, and advanced laser cleaning technology has received more and more attention. Today, advanced manufacturing has become the commanding heights of international competition. The development of laser cleaning technology is of great strategic significance to the substantial improvement of the international competitiveness of my country’s rail transit equipment and the development of economy and society.
Traditional rail cleaning solutions
The main raw material of China’s railway tracks is high manganese steel, which is an alloy steel with good wear resistance and wear resistance, which can effectively resist impact wear. Because the track is exposed to the air all the year round and needs to face the natural environment of wind and rain, the rust of the track has always been a common problem in the track maintenance work. In order to ensure the smooth operation of the train, the railway department will regularly carry out rust removal work on the track.
At present, rail rust removal mainly relies on grinding and rust removal, including manual grinding and rust removal and the use of large-scale rail rust removal and grinding machines. Manual grinding and derusting is the main method of rail maintenance at present, but it is labor-intensive, difficult to operate and low in efficiency.
Large-scale rail derusting and grinding machines are more efficient than manual grinding and derusting, but the rust-removing equipment is large and requires its own generator when used, which is driven by traction locomotives to run on the railway. The transportation plan needs to be submitted in advance. The occupation of the line during on-site operation will affect the traffic transportation, and the single cleaning cost is high, which has a great impact on the surrounding environment of the railway track.
In addition, traditional grinding and rust removal has the following problems:
- Deep grinding ensures the cleanliness of the rails, but may damage the cambered surface of the rails and affect the comfort of passengers;
- Reduce the amount of grinding and protect the camber appearance, resulting in serious rust residues and burying huge safety hazards;
- Grinding and cleaning need to consume a lot of grinding wheel consumables, the cost is high, and dust is easily generated during the cleaning process, causing serious environmental pollution, and at the same time causing huge harm to the health of maintenance workers;
- The work efficiency is low and the cleaning cycle is long, which will result in higher labor costs and transportation scheduling costs.
Innovative applications of laser cleaning
During the maintenance and repair of rail transit equipment, there are a large number of components that need to be cleaned. Key components installed or suspended outside the vehicle body, such as axles, gearboxes, brake discs, pantographs, etc., need to be removed from oil, rust, paint and other contaminants. Due to the variety of dirt, different cleaning methods are required, and even parts are disassembled, and the cleaning process is long. Traditional cleaning methods include sandblasting, mechanical grinding, high-pressure water jets, chemical cleaning, and ultrasonic cleaning. These cleanings have problems such as damage to the substrate, poor working environment, pollution, long cleaning time, incomplete cleaning of some locations, and high cleaning costs.
Compared with traditional cleaning methods, the advantages of laser cleaning track are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
- Safer: The laser cleaning equipment can realize the cleaning light source to adapt to the arc shape of the rail, minimize the damage of the substrate, and prolong the service life of the rail while improving the cleaning degree;
- More environmentally friendly: laser cleaning equipment will not produce dust pollution during the cleaning process, which is green and environmentally friendly;
- More convenient: The laser cleaning equipment can be operated by one person or integrated with the robot, avoiding additional application for railway transportation plans, further improving work efficiency and reducing cleaning costs.
Laser cleaning is a new technology that is different from the traditional cleaning process in the past. It has received more and more attention because of its green energy saving and environmental protection. It has a very important application prospect in the rail transit industry.
Although the application of laser cleaning technology in the field of rail transit is in its infancy, the market prospect is broad and its promotion is of great significance. With the improvement of rail passenger vehicle manufacturing level and the implementation of “Made in China 2025”, laser processing technology has become an indispensable technical means for high-end equipment manufacturing in the future. As an important branch of laser processing technology, laser cleaning, with its high-quality, efficient and intelligent engineering features, reduces product manufacturing costs, improves the automation level of production lines, meets the needs of enterprise transformation and upgrading, and conforms to the national green development concept. Huge economic and social benefits.
